Tales of Phantasy
by Strawberry Eggs
Summary: Crossover, AU with Phantasy Star Online When the ship Pioneer 2 reaches planet Ragol, a strange explosion is seen. A team of hunters is sent to investigate beginning with Lloyd, Colette, Genis and Raine. You don't need to have played PSO to read this.
1. Prologue

**Full Summary: **Escaping from a world on the brink of destruction, the people of the ship _Pioneer 2 _finally arrive at their new home world of Ragol. Before they could make contact with the first ship sent, _Pioneer 1, _a mysterious explosion is seen from orbit and communication is lost with _Pioneer 1. _To investigate this and to find out what happened to _Pioneer 1, _the principal government sends several skilled hunters working as a team starting with Lloyd , Colette , Genis and Raine .

**HUGE PHANTASY STAR ONLINE SPOILERS! If you haven't finished the game, or plan on playing it and just don't like spoilers, DO NOT READ THIS! ToS spoilers are more character related…if you have not gotten to the doctor event in Flanoir and don't like spoilers, don't read this either.**

Well I've finally decided to write a long ToS fic, not a one-shot songfic like in the past. As I've stated in the summary, this will be a Tales of Symphonia/Phantasy Star Online crossover fic. From what I can gather, few people who played ToS also played PSO. Also I had wanted to novelize of PSO, but didn't think anyone would read it. So then I thought, "what if the Tale of Symphonia characters were in PSO"? What if they replaced the characters in PSO?

So yes, this crossover takes place in the PSO world. However, instead of your own characters, the ToS characters are the hunters sent to investigate Ragol. The four that I mentioned in the full summary will be the first team. Sheena and Zelos will join them later and Presea and Regal later after that. Everyone will mostly have his or herown personalities (though since it's an entirely different world, expect some out-of-character-ness). I call Lloyd "Aurion" instead of "Irving" because here he knows his father is Kratos and was raised by him along with Anna. Also it will include some pairings: Lloyd and Colette, Sheena and Zelos, and maybe Presea and Genis later on. They'll start out are just hints though. By Episode II they'll become a bit more pronounced, though I'm still inexprienced with writing romace so it may not be all that good. There will be other ways I'll incorporate Tales into the PSO world (for example the people of _Pioneer 1 and 2_ come from Symphonia, not Coral like in PSO). I'll also make some changes to the PSO world to fit my theories and ideas on things (it's an AU after all) Oh and it'll be spilt into two stories, one for Episode I and another for Episode II. This first chapter is the prologue by the way. Since I know there will be people reading who never played PSO, the story shall be written so that there is no need to haven played it.

Okay, I think that's enough of this overly long Author's Note :P. I hope you all enjoy it.

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**Prologue: The Whole New World**

In the vastness of space, a gigantic circle of light formed, breaking the usual blackness dotted by stars. From this circle, an enormous space ship emerged; a ship named the _Pioneer 2,_ carrying thirty thousand refuges.

The people abroad the great ship hailed from a planet called Symphonia. Over a century ago it was discovered that the planet's magnetic field was weakening at an alarming rate. A planet of its size should've been able to keep it for much longer, but perhaps some cataclysmic event occurred that permanently damaged it. Whatever the case may be, without the magnetic field, the planet would be defenseless against the harmful radiation of outer space, which would very quickly destroy all life on Symphonia. Not much could be done except for one plan: To leave the planet. There was no other effective way.

Ironically, this wasn't even the first time the Symphonians had to abandon their home world. Indeed, Symphonia was not their original home world at all. Nearly two thousand years before, the ancestors of these people lived in a distant solar system called Algo. Their home planet was called Palma. However, an artificial moon had somehow come loose from orbit and crashed into Palma, destroying their ancestral home. All was not lost though as the Palmans had felt their world was in danger long before then and had already built hundreds of enormous "World Ships", managing to escape Palma's destruction before the moon could hit.

Some of these ships landed on the nearby planets of Motavia and Dezoris, but most others escaped into space, searching for new home worlds. One of these great "World Ships" called _Symphonia _found such a planet, naming it after the ship that brought them there. Feeling that they finally found a new home, the people built a new advanced civilization over a course of several centuries.

But even that came to pass upon the discovery of the planet's weakening magnetic field. Over the century they prepared to leave the planet that had become their home. They built great ship, smaller but more easily able to travel through hyperspace than the world ship that brought them to Symphonia. Most ships were heading to the other worlds that had been settled on. Some were even destined for their original solar system, Algo. However, there were people who did not want to go to an already established world. They wished to start up their own new world, much like their ancestors did nearly two millennia ago. These people were mostly hunters; adventurers consisting of blade-wielding Hunters, firearms-using Rangers and Techniques-casting Forces who wished to explore and colonize someplace new.

Thus started the aptly named _Pioneer Project. _First an unmanned probe was sent out to find a planet that could support human and Newman life. Such a planet was found and named Ragol, a name similar to their original system Algo, and the ship _Pioneer 1 _was sent to confirm if the planet was inhabitable and begin constructing a colony. Once the ship confirmed it, the main wave of refugees were sent in the _Pioneer 2_. A total of seven years after _Pioneer 1 _was sent (about three-and-a-half after _Pioneer 1 _landed on Ragol), the Ship was finally within the solar system Ragol was a part of.

As the ship neared their new home, the thousands of people onboard gathered around huge monitors. They were blank now, but they all eagerly waited for when the planet will appear onscreen. After three years of being onboard a ship, many longed to step on the soil of a real planet again. Young children who were either born on the ship or too young to remember life on Symphonia also were anxious to see the new world.

Soon the screen flickered to life. Everyone gasped in awe when they laid eyes on the near spherical object in space. Much like their home Symphonia (and Palma before), the planet consisted of a lot of blue for the oceans and green for the continents. To the colonists, the planet was a gem, a great beautiful gem floating in the stillness of space

_Pioneer 2 _prepared to open communications with _Pioneer 1. _Soon after the channel was opened though, a giant gray flare erupted from the planet surface. Everyone gasped; it looked very much like an explosion. At it's epicenter was the location of the colony _Pioneer 1 _began.

Immediately panic erupted among the colonists. What was that? Was it really an explosion? What caused it? And what happened to the people of _Pioneer 1_?


	2. A Team is Formed

And this would be chapter one. I decided to post the prologue and the first chapter together so that the prologue would serve as the introduction to the PSO world as well as to my fic in general, while chapter one will finally introduce the ToS characters I promised. I'm afraid this chapter won't be very action-packed. That starts next chapter. This is necessary to introduce the real plot and characters though.

For new readers, I'll explain the PSO character classes here to reduce confusion:

In PSO there are twelve character classes (I create a few more classes for this fic though) with their names describing the type of hunter they are (Hunter, Ranger, or Force), their race (Human, Newman, or Android), and their gender. For example there is the HUmar class, a Hunter who is a Human male. The "HU" obviously stands for "Hunter" (I know that they're collectively called hunters and one group are called Hunters. It can be a bit confusing.), the "ma" stands for human, and the ending "r" is for males. For each new class I introduce, I'll describe it like this "HUmar (Hunter/human/male)".

There, hope that helped. So without further ado, here's chapter one.

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**Chapter One: A Team is Formed**

_Guess I'm early_.

A week had passed since the strange explosion on Ragol's surface was seen. After several attempts by the principal government to make contact with anyone from _Pioneer 1, _it was finally agreed that search parties needed to be sent down to the planet surface in order to learn about the whereabouts of _Pioneer 1's _people. Not surprisingly, many people onboard _Pioneer 2 _has family on _1 _and wanted to know what happened to them.

The brown-haired and eyed HUmar (AN: Stands for Hunter/human/male) wearing red and dark blue armor with a red circular symbol on his chest--Section ID Redria-- standing near the transporter was such a person.

Lloyd Aurion was among the many hunters hired by the government based on his skill. Though young, he showed to be quite the talented swordsman while at the Hunter's Academy. He had also agreed to work as a team with other hunters. As a matter a fact he jumped at the chance to start the investigation as soon as possible. After all, among those sent to Ragol on _Pioneer 1 _was his own father, Kratos Aurion.

His father was a solider, and among the many sent to Ragol first to confirm if it was habitable. Only the military as well as those who would be building the colony were allowed to go. Only a few of them brought their families. He still remembered how sad he was seven year ago when he and his mother Anna saw him for the last time before he boarded the _Pioneer 1. _They were able to keep in touch via BEE system messages, as did many who had family on the first ship. Lloyd was so excited three years-and-a-half-years later when _Pioneer 1 _confirmed Ragol was habitable and the _Pioneer 2 _finally left for the new worldFinally he'd be able to go to Ragol and see his father again. Now after seven long years, he's not even certain his father was still alive.

While Lloyd hoped that his father was all right, he still knew nothing about him or what happened to everyone else. He at least needed to know the truth, to put his and his mother's minds at rest as well as hundreds of people on _Pioneer 2. _

The red-armored Hunter's thoughts were interrupted by an "augh!" then a thud sound. Looking to the right, he saw a sixteen-year-old girl with platinum blond hair that reached to her waist and big clear blue eyes. She wore the typical armor of a HUmarl(AN:Hunter/human/female. This class does not actually exist in the game, but there's no reason it can't exist) which was lighter and sleeker than a HUmar's and colored silver and black with a dark green circular symbol on her chest--Section ID Viridia. The girl had clearly fallen down, her arms and legs sprawled out.

Lloyd couldn't help but smile, "Colette!"

"Lloyd!" The HUmarl exclaimed.  
Colette Brunel was a fellow hunter and close friend Lloyd met while attending the Hunter's Academy back on Symphonia. Lloyd was very familiar with her clumsiness; she even tripped while running into the assembly on the first day. The HUmar helped her back up.

"Oh I'm sorry! I'm not late, am I?"

"If you were, then I wouldn't be standing outside the transporter," Lloyd pointed out.

"Then I rushed over here for nothing…sorry."

"How many times do I have to tell you that you don't have to say 'sorry' all the time?"

"You're right…sorry."

Lloyd sighed _Old habits die hard I guess, _he thought. The blond HUmarl was also know for being overly apologetic.

"It looks like we'll be part of the same hunter team. Lucky us, huh?" Lloyd pointed out.

"Yes!" She agreed cheerfully, "I was surprised when the government asked me to help with investigating _Pioneer 1. _Still I'm glad they did. I want to help those who have family on _Pioneer 1_...especially you, Lloyd."

"Thank you, Colette," he said with smile. He couldn't help it when he was around her and her pure-hearted, unselfish nature.

"Lloyd Aurion and Colette Brunel…? This is a certainly a surprise."

Both Hunters had been taking to each to each other face to face. They turned their heads toward the familiar-sounding voice.

"P-professor Sage?" Lloyd nearly shouted.

Near the door were two Forces, both with silver hair and blue-violet eyes. The FOmarl one (AN: Force/human/female) which Lloyd referred to as Professor Sage wore a small hat, which covered much of her hair and wore silver with black lined FOmarl's gown. High up on her chest was a pink circular symbol-- Section ID Pinkal.

The other forces standing next to her was a FOnewm (AN: Force/newman/male), and a very young one at that. While young hunters are not uncommon, someone his age (twelve) would've just joined the academy, not already have his license as evidence of his Section ID. His spiky hair was also covered by a hat like a stocking cap, which had a green puffball at the end. He wore the typical jester-like uniform of the FOnewm, which was blue and white and had a light blue circular symbol at the base of his neck--Section ID Skyly. His long pointed ears stuck out form the sides of his head at nearly 180 degrees, the ears that all Force Newman had.

"They asked you to help too, Professor Sage?" Colette asked.

"Indeed they did," the FOmarl replied

"Heh-heh this'll be interesting…working with my old teacher," Lloyd muttered. "They were students of yours I take it Raine?" The young FOnewm asked.

"That is correct," Raine replied. She then turned to Lloyd and asked, "So tell me, in what year did King Waizz begin his rein as ruler of a newly all united Palma?"

"Uh-uh, Professor! This isn't class! I don't have to know that anymore!" Lloyd complained.

"What do you mean you don't have to know?" The teacher outraged, "How do you expect to understand the present without knowing about the past?"

"Ahh!"

"Oh, who are you?" Colette asked the FOnewm who was rolling his eyes.

She wasn't trying to change the subject, but the HUmar was glad she did.

"Me? I'm Genis Sage, Raine's brother," he explained.

"Ah of course! You two do have the same eyes and hair color."

Human and Newman siblings are not that uncommon or unusual. There is also no such thing as a "half-Newman". After all, they are really the same species. They just look different, like different races of humans. This is because Newmans hundreds of years ago-- when the Symphonians' ancestors were still traveling in the World Ship-- were created by a group of human scientist. They had used data they found about an accidental creation of a creature that was mostly human but with the genes of animals mixed in and improved upon it. Why they wanted to is still not well understood, but the project was ceased. At first there was a very negative response to the Newmans, many people referring to them as monsters and unnatural. It took a long time before they saw how very close to humans, and later how they were essentially human they were and accepted them into society. With today's integration of the races, there are really only a few characteristics that separate Newmans from humans: The long pointed ears, naturally higher Techniques capabilities, higher agility and lower physical strength. Since they are linked, there is never anything intermediary between humans and Newmans. If a human and Newman have children, there is a percentage of those who will inherit all these traits and be labeled Newmans and those who won't be born with them and be labeled humans.

"I'm Colette Brunel," the blond said.

"And I'm Lloyd Aurion," the HUmar inserted, "Uh Genis, did they ask you to investigate, too?"

"I know, I look like I should have just started in the academy," the young Force sighed, "I got a head start studying and learning Techniques since I was eight. Actually just this year I became a licensed Force."

"Whoa! You must be a genius! I still have a hard time with Techniques like Gifoie," Lloyd exclaimed in amazement.

"Well I have been called a prodigy and I even mastered all the Gi-level techniques. But it did take some convincing on Raine's part to let me join," Genis explained.

"I wasn't entirely convinced as well," Raine said, "but since we'll be accompanied by two Hunters I know, I won't have to worry too much about you on Ragol."

As soon as she finished a voice came over a nearby intercom saying "Hunters Colette and Lloyd and Forces Raine and Genis, you may see the Principal."

With that the four hunters stepped into the transporter, sending them to a large hall built above the city, near the top of the ship. At the end of the hall sat Principal Dorr, the elected leader of _Pioneer 2_. The aging man appeared to be in his early to mid sixties with graying blond hair. Near him sat some scientist and his secretary.

"Again I must thank you for agreeing to work in a team. I understand that hunters prefer working alone, but for this situation we really need cooperation," he began.

"Understandable," Raine said, "teams would be more efficient, especially on a new planet."

The Principal nodded, "We would like you to investigate the forest area where the settlement is built on, especially the Central Dome. However we can only transport you to an area some distance from the Dome. You should find a transporter that will take you to it within the forest. While your main target is Central Dome, search carefully for anything about the explosion we saw as well as for people from Pioneer 1. We would also like you to start the investigation as soon as possible. "

"Understood sir," the four said.

"Are there any questions?"

"No sir," they all said.

"One more thing," the Principal began, "…. Never mind. You may be now."

They looked puzzled, but decided not to ask, leaving the Principal's hall. Once they were back in the Hunter's Guild area, Raine began, "Well then, now is as good a time as any to discuss this. When should we begin?"

"Tomorrow! The Principal said we had to start as soon as possible!" Lloyd stated, "After all, we still don't know if everyone from _Pioneer 1_ is safe or not!"

"Lloyd's right," Colette agreed.

Genis nodded, "Can't argue with you there."

"Well I have no objections to tomorrow," Raine said, "Then it's decided. We should all meet by the transporter to Ragol's surface tomorrow morning say… nine a.m.?"

Lloyd and Colette agreed. Once they finished, the hunters went they're separate ways (save for the Sage siblings who went together) either heading home or to the shops to buy healing items and supplies.

_Well it's a good thing I got teamed up with some people I know, _Lloyd thought, _I need to find him…or at least find out what happened…tomorrow…_


	3. The Search Begins

Yep I'm back with chapter two of "Tales of Phantasy". Now the story is going to pick up so I'm sorry if the beginning didn't seem too exciting. But hey, you need chapters to build on plot and characterization, you know? Anyway, they're going to begin the investigation of Ragol, finding out there's more to the mystery _Pioneer 1 _than meets the eye.

Heh, I didn't realize that before…if you do play PSO but haven't completed it (including Episode II) this will have loads of spoilers for the game (any ToS spoilers are more character-related than plot-related). Oh well.

I'm still not sure if we're allowed to respond to reviews (some people say you can't while others still do. I just don't know) but to be on the safe side I won't. I'll just say thank you to **M. Hunter Traubel Trainee, Ark Navy and Dragon Disciple** for your reviews! It means a lot to me that people are reading this odd and slow fic. If you have any questions or wish for me to respond to your review, say so in your review and I'll email you.

By the way, if you're still confused about the names of the hunter classes (HUmar, HUmarl, FOmarl, FOnewm, etc.), I've added an explanation to the Author's note in chapter 1 (not the prologue).

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**Chapter Two: The Search Begins**

That area of the forest was very peaceful. While small bird chirped and insects flew about, no larger creatures could be seen. Small white flowers dotted patches of grass where the sunlight was allowed through. If it weren't for the gate and the transporter, all would have seemed untouched by civilization.

That same transporter came to life as four figures materialized, becoming two silver-haired Forces, a brown-haired Hunter and a blond-haired Hunter. Each one already had their weapons at their sides and their Mags floating over their shoulder, typical hunter form.

Lloyd carried two single-edged swords made of green light, or photons as they were called, named the Musashi. It took the young Hunters two years and several thousand Gald to get the rare weapon, but he felt it was well worth it. Over his shoulder hovered the Mag Varuna, resembling a red and blue sunfish with a single yellow eye.

Mags are small robotic companions given to each hunter after they graduate from the Hunter Academy, a long-standing tradition begun on Symphonia. Small and simple at first, with care and by bonding to their masters, Mags can evolve into more advanced forms. They mainly boost the defensive abilities of hunters' armor and shields and the offensive power and accuracy of hunters' weapons. However more advanced Mags posses powerful abilities called Photon Blasts, which are either extremely powerful attacks, heals the hunter, or raises the hunter's abilities. Mags can also help their masters in different ways, such as using abilities to heal or revive their master and even make them temporally invincible to enemy attacks in certain situations.

Colette's weapon of choice was the Sawcer, a Slicer-Type weapon which resembled a thin boomerang with a photon blade at one end. Slicers can either be thrown like a boomerang or slashed forward to release a flying blade of photons. The latter use can cut through one enemy to hit the others behind it. She wielded Slicers quite skillfully, though if she used other weapons such as Sabers she had a much likelier chance of tripping. She too had a Varuna Mag, though hers was blue and pale yellow. Varunas are first stage evolutions Mags that every Hunter gets. A Mag's evolution is a complex process determined by their master's class, gender, Section ID, what their masters fed them and several other factors. When Lloyds' and Colette's Varunas evolve, they'll possibly not be the same type of Mag.

Genis held a Wand-type weapon called a Scepter. While wands are hardly the most intimidating of weapons, their main use is to raise a Forces' mental prowess and thus his or her Technical abilities. His Mag was a silver and blue Vritra, which resembled a sea snail. Every Force gets this Mag when theirs first evolves.

Raine's weapon was rather unique: in her right hand she held an ancient-looking book called the _Prophets of Motavia_. It was a copy of a book written long ago which described how Techniques were first created. They were developed to be similar to magic, but useable by anyone as they rely on the user's mental abilities instead of the use of Mana. Techniques are sort of like psychic powers, only they can be used by any human or Newman (Androids' brains do not seem to be compatible with Techniques). The art of real Magic had been lost long ago when the Symphonians' ancestors left Palma. While only a copy, the book still possessed the ability to greatly increase a Force's Technical power. Her Mag was a Namuci, which looked very much like a silver shrimp with a blue eye and tail tip. Her Namuci was a stage higher than her younger peers' Mags.

"So this is Ragol," Lloyd stated, which was on everyone's minds.

"What a beautiful forest," Colette commented, "It doesn't look very different from Symphonia at all."

"Indeed," Raine added, "Much in the same way that Symphonia wasn't very different from Palma. That's convergent evolution for you."

"Con…what?" Lloyd asked, looking puzzled.

"In other words, since the climates and conditions on Symphonia and Ragol are so similar, they would have alike environments. Thus, the organisms would look nearly the same as they adapted to similar environments. It shouldn't be surprising that the plants are similar. The animals will probably looks very much like Symphonia's animals as well," the professor explained.

"Oh…. I get it," the young Hunter said hesitantly.

Genis rolled his eyes, "I'm sure you do. This coming from the same guy who doesn't know what year King Waizz began rule as king of all Palma."

"Hey it's not like I don't know who he was! I'm just not good with dates and stuff!"

"For Great Light's sake it's AW 1! AW mean "After Waizz", as in the first year after he united Palma!"

"Oh yeah…I knew that. I just forgot. I mean its AW 3084 now."

"What's that have to do with anything?"

"Perhaps we should start the investigation," Raine interjected, "The sooner we start, the more likely we'll find any survivors."

The other three agreed then moved away from the transporter. The first area was very small and surrounded by small hills with a gate forming a sort of fourth wall. As they neared the gate switch, the blond HUmarl suddenly fell over face first.

"Oh dear," Raine sighed, recalling Colette's clumsiness.

Near the fallen girl's feet, an orange light rose up from the ground.

"Ah, testing, testing…" said a woman's voice coming form the light.

"What?" Lloyd wondered aloud as Colette stood back up.

"Oh I see it's a message pack," Genis said, indicating orange object on the ground.

"So that's what I tripped over," Colette said.

"I'm Rico, Rico Dorr. I'm a Hunter," it continued.

"Rico? As in Red Ring Rico? No way!" Lloyd exclaimed.

"This capsule is for anyone who has come here looking for me. I hope this helps you. I don't know who you are, but you must know that there's something unusual about Ragol. This is important. Pay attention if you want to survive."

The orange light turned off, signaling the message was complete.

"A message left by someone from _Pioneer 1_," Raine began, "And left by none other than the famous Hunter and scientist Rico Dorr."

"Dorr…as in Principal Dorr? I always heard people call her Red Ring Rico," Lloyd said.

"It's not that well-know but yes, she is the daughter of the Principal," Raine replied.

"Maybe that's what he was trying to say before," Colette suggested, "finding Rico."

"More than likely…" Raine responded, "What does she mean by 'there's something unusual'…I better check how long ago this was recorded…"

The FOmarl bent down to check the small orange pack. With a small gasp she said, "This…it was recorded less than a day after the explosion!"

"So then either she survived it or she was no where near it," Genis said, "She could still be alive!"

"We better keep looking," Lloyd, said, "Maybe she's still around, or there could be more of those message pack things."

Moving on, the hunter entered a much larger area of forest. It too was bordered by hills with gates closing off any opening.

There was still no sign of anyone from Pioneer 1.

_Central Dome, Lloyd reminded himself, if anyplace, he should be at Central Dome…or at least we'll find out what happened…_

_Suddenly the ground in front of the hunters seemed to have exploded upward. The cause of it soon became visible: five giant bipedal beasts burrowed up, roaring in unison. Each brown-furred beast had a large wide mouth filled with sharp teeth. A small horn grew from its nose and each of its long arms ended in three thick eight-inch claws_

"Looks like Ragol's wildlife found us," Raine said.

"And they don't look happy!" Lloyd added.

One of the beasts lumbered toward Lloyd. As fierce as they looked, they were none too fast. Lloyd charged at the monster, side-stepping its swings before slashing it with his right Musashi. Another one of the monsters made its way toward the red-armored HUmar but was stopped by a large fireball, causing it to roar out in pain. It turned its attention toward the source of the fireball, a Foie Technique. Raine, holding out her _Prophets_ book, continued to release more Foie balls at it. Genis standing across from two of them raised his Scepter, causing what looked like a stream of icy mist to run across the ground. The ice Technique Barta hit both beasts. Colette backed him up with her Sawcer to keep them from getting too close to the young FOnewm.

Having disposed of the first clawed creature, Lloyd finished off another, pulling his right Musashi from the beast's still form. With a yell the Hunter felt something fast and heavy land on his back, shoving him to the ground. He looked to the side to see what hit him. A snarling four-legged monster glared back at him. This beast resembled a large wolf or dog, except instead of fur, its body was covered in sand and silver-colored scales. Its tail looked more like a reptile's than a regular wolf's.

The saurian-wolf then let out a yelp as a bolt of lightening hit it, a Zonde Technique, causing it to leap off the HUmar. He quickly got up, seeing that the bear creatures were all killed and four of the wolf-lizards took their place.

"Whoever that was, thanks!" Lloyd called out.

"Don't mention it, but don't show your backs to these things! They only attack when your back is turned!" Genis shouted back.

"Okay!"

The reptilian wolf circled around Lloyd. He kept pace with it, stabbing and slashing it every so often. The Force siblings discovered the animals had an especial weakness to Zonde, keeping two of them from attacking. Colette kept the fourth wolf at bay with her Sawcer.

These creatures proved to be less resilient than the clawed ones, falling quicker to the hunter's weapons and Techniques. Raine quickly waved her right hand up, causing faint green specks of light to circle around everyone. Instantly their wounds were healed and fatigued vanished.

Resta, as the Techniques is called, is a simple but extremely effective means of healing. Any non-android can learn it and even at low levels, it can restore a lot of health. By upgrading the Technique with higher-level discs (the means by which Techniques are taught in the first place), it can restore more health and heal more than one person. While all four of them knew Resta, Raine possessed the highest-level Resta out of any of them.

After the others thanked her, Raine looked at the watch-like device on her wrist. While it acted as a mini-computer, it's main feature was its radar.

"Huh? Wait…"

"What is it, Professor?" Colette asked.

"Check your radar," she instructed. Doing as she said, they saw an image of the wolf-like creature they fought. The words "Savage Wolf" was next to it.

"It seems our radar is picking up data from _Pioneer 1_'s computers," Raine said, "Obviously, Savage Wolf must be what _Pioneer 1 _named these animals."

"Yeah," Genis added, touching a button on his device, "And those ugly bear-things from before are called Boomas. Since they're receiving data from_ Pioneer 1_'s computers, that means at least one of them is still functioning!"

"So maybe this computer could tell us something about that explosion, or at least what happened before it!" Lloyd said.

"Perhaps," Raine said, "It's certainly worth a look."

Not even having taken ten steps, a yellow creature dropped from the trees. It was bird-like but flightless, much like a big penguin. Its eyes were large and dark and two long antenna-like extensions stemmed from its beak.

"It's so cute!" Colette squealed. The yellow bird chirped, waddling close to her.

"That animal is called a Rag Rappy," Raine said, checking her radar, "We should still be cautious. Even the Penguinists and Penguiners back on Symphonia could be harmful."

"I know, but that's only if you hurt them first," Colette said.

The Rappy, having waddled close enough, jumped forward, pecking the HUmarl's knee.

"Ow! Hey why did you do that?"

The bird responded with another peck. The third time, she blocked it with her shield.

Looking annoyed, the Rappy squawked loudly. All around the hunters, fourteen more of the yellow birds dropped down from the trees.

Just as soon as they landed, a large fireball exploded outward from the hunters, knocking the Rappies down. Two more explosions kept them that way.

Raine relaxed her arms. She used Rafoie, the most powerful fire Technique. Due to its power, she used it sparingly as it caused mental fatigue very quickly.

"I know they were attacking us, but I wish they didn't have to be killed," Colette said sadly.

As if on cue, all fifteen Rag Rappies stood up, running away as fast as their legs could carry them. Everyone stared dumbfounded until Lloyd finally said, " They were…playing dead?"

"Oh thank goodness! There weren't hurt that badly," Colette said, relieved.

"But that's a weird thing to do," Genis stated, "If they were gonna just run away, why bother picking a fight? Even the Penguinists and Penguiners never did that."

"So far the animals we've encountered have been very aggressive, including those Rappies. It's a different planet and all, but it's almost hard to imagine that they'd all be this hostile."

"I know. Big bears with horns and lizard-wolves I can understand but yellow birds that run away?" Lloyd muttered, "What next?"

What followed was battle after battle against the three native creatures they first encountered as well as a few new ones. These included Monests and Mothmants; symbiotic creatures in which the Monest, a creature resembling a green-tan pitcher plant with long stems acted as a living hive for Mothmants, insects that looked very much like gigantic mosquitoes. There were also subspecies of Boomas called Goboomas, larger and stronger than the "normal" ones with longer horns and tan fur and subspecies of wolves called Barbarous Wolves, stronger than Savage Wolves with blue scales. The pattern continued as they neared the transporter that would take them to Central Dome. No signs of Symphonian life could be seen, though they found several message packs the Hunter Rico left behind. Most offered her tips on how to deals with Ragol's animals but one especially stood out.

"What made the animals become so violent all of a sudden? They weren't before. They were very quiet and friendly... There must be some cause. I'll find it. I know I'm  
a fool. This won't make me any richer. Perhaps that's why I'm exalted by them...  
Red Ring Rico, ha, ha. But I'm not really the great hunter citizens say I am. They  
needed a hero. And I just happened to fill that position."

"So these animals…use to be friendly?" Genis inquired after hearing the latest message located near the transporter.

"Hard to imagine those wolves and Boomas being friendly," Lloyd commented.

"Rico said they were quiet and friendly," Raine pointed out, "Perhaps they were more the former. Still, it's highly unusual for animals to become this aggressive so suddenly."

"Maybe the animals felt they were invading their territory and they all ganged up on _Pioneer 1_?" Lloyd suggested.

"Doubtful," Genis replied, "It's only been three years and it doesn't look like they changed the environment that much. Besides, I don't think these animals are intelligent enough to band together like that."

"And yet they still attack as, seemingly bent on our destruction," Raine added, "There's really no way of telling, though."

"What could've happened to them?" Colette wondered.

The conversation over, the hunters gathered inside the transporter, allowing it to take them deeper into the forest, and closer to their target.

* * *

Actually now that I look at it, that wasn't too exciting either. However this is necessary to build up on more of Ragol's mysteries (as well as better explaining the Phantasy Star Online world). Well next time they'll finally reach Central Dome…where even more mysteries are found (this game really has a lot of mysteries that aren't fully answered until you dig deep into the storyline. Even then they leave quite a few things up in the air).

From what I can gauge, I think I may be able to update once every two week or so. I have one-and-a-half hours on the train and occasionally free time between classes after doing homework to write out this story by hand or to type it in one of the computer rooms. In fact I'm up to chapter four by now on paper. It's finding time to type it up where I may occasionally not be able to update for a while. Sorry, I'd update more often if I could. Just bare with this story, please, it will get better. Thanks for reading. Please review and tell me how I'm doing.


	4. Growl, From the Depths of the Earth

Eh, was this chapter a bit later than I promised? Or more like two weeks later than I promised?I'm really sorry :Bows repeatedly: I hoped that updating once every two weeks would be doable, but I'm afraid I'll be late once in a while. I've been having exams in college lately so sadly I have less time than I hope to use the computer to type my chapters. You won't have to worry about writer's block from me, at least for a while seeing as I'm up to chapter seven on paper. Just hope that next time I won't be too bogged down with work to get the chance to type the next chapter and post it. Oh well it is the school year. Just about everyone can't update as often as they'd like.

You know I've looked around and I still can't find anything that says we can't respond to reviews. Also, several authors still do it. I'll start from this chapter on. If it turns out there is a ban on review responses I'm afraid I'll have stop, though.

**Ark Navy:** Hm, I never knew that Stony Brook University was another name for Hogwarts XD. Guess I should've mentioned I was a college student earlier. Heh, the idea of Colette tripping over those little orange pack Rico has around Ragol seemed natural to me, like how she tripped onto the lever when Sheena first attacked the group.

**Melody of Shadow: **Yay, a new reader who also plays PSO! Thanks so much for reviewing! Heh, I remember when my sister use to complain about having to use a FOmarl character in the beginning of the game. Now with a Grants Technique that does a HUGE amount of damage, she certainly doesn't anymore.

**Kuramagirl44:** Thanks so much for reviewing, Rose, and for reviewing my Mithos songfic! . I read a few of your fics by now, (four I believe). I must say you're quite the writer. It's interesting how I read your story "Farewell My Shadow" before even knowing that was you. Well here's hoping you like this chapter as much as the first few.

**Eliannora:** Wow, you're reading this fic of mine too! Thank you! Yep, who can't think those chubby little Rag Rappies are cute? They're even cute when there's a large flock of them trying to peck you to death. XD I'm glad your liking it so far and I can't wait for the next chapters of "Become One of Them" and "Sheena's Scheme".

* * *

**Chapter 3: Growl, From the Depths of the Earth**

"A disaster occurred. Things were shaking, and then something broke the surface. And then it exploded in the Central Dome! I don't know what to say… For three-and-a-half years, we've tried to adjust and improve the environment. What was it? Was it related to the accidents we've had earlier?"

"She sounds like she describing the explosion!" Lloyd said, " So she was away when it happened!"

"So it seems," Raine added, "However, this still does not tell us how the explosion occurred…we may need to find more of these message packs before we reach the Central Dome."

Colette looked off to the distance, seeing a large building up on a plateau.

"That's Central Dome…" she stated, "If there was an explosion, why is it still there?"

The rest of them went silent for a while. Obviously the thought hadn't crossed their minds.

"That explosion we saw did originate from the Dome," Raine began, "As large as it was, it should've caused some visible damage."

"Great, as if there weren't enough mysterious things happening on this planet," Genis sighed.

* * *

"GROAH!" a huge beast cried before collapsing. Perhaps between 15 and 17 feet in height, the giant looked very much like an ape with pointed bat-like ears. Its fur was mostly black with patches of red and blue bare skin on its face, legs and hands. This Hildebear, as the people of _Pioneer 1 _had named it, was a surprisingly fast and very strong animal, requiring the whole group to work together to defeat it. 

Much like the last forest area, they had to face one animal bent on their destruction after another all while searching for anyone from _Pioneer 1_, or something that could tell them what happened. The only new animal, aside from the Hildebear was another sub-species of Booma called the Gigobooma, which was larger than Goboomas with tan and fuchsia fur and a much longer horn. They had found an operational computer, but there seemed to have been nothing unusual entered into its log before the explosion occurred. There weren't even any concerns about such an explosion happening. The Central Dome was looking more and more like the only place to get some answers.

After some time the hunters reached the foot of the plateau Central Dome was located, where as per usual they were ambushed by more of Ragol's animals, including the giant Hildebear.

"Was that Hilde-thing the last of them?" Lloyd panted. He acted as a diversion while the other three attacked the Hildebear from a distance. He quickly rectified his fatigue with a Resta though.

A silver-haired flash in a long robe suddenly zipped passed the younger hunters. Looking over to where it was heading, they could see the top of a large pillar of stone, mostly hidden by a hill.

"Didn't notice that before," Lloyd said.

"We were distracted by all those animals," Genis pointed out. The young Force then sighed, "I have a feeling…"

"Genis? What do you mean by feeling?" Colette asked.

"…You'll see."

The three ran over to the monolith where they were greeted by a loud "MARVELOUS!" from the FOmarl.

The Force in question was gazing upon the large stone pillar covered in strange engravings that ran down it. One could've sworn there were stars in her eyes.

"Uh…" Lloyd said dumbfounded.

"Just as I thought," the FOnewm sighed, "I was hoping this would stay a secret, too."

"Remarkable craftsmanship! It was just a silly fantasy of mine but…" Raine said excitedly.

"Every time she sees some new artifact or ruin she gets like this," Genis sighed again.

"Ruin…but I thought this planet is uninhabited?" Lloyd asked.

"'Is' being the key word. Maybe this was built by a civilization that died out," Genis explained

"Oh."

"Looks, it's another one of Rico's messages," Colette said, turning it on.

"I heard that this tall column was built to commemorate the immigration of _Pioneer 1_. But…it may just be me, it doesn't look very new. And those patterns…aren't they characters?" the now familiar voice said.

"Preposterous! How could anyone be led to believe something like this is new?" Raine exclaimed.

"She obviously doesn't know much about ancient history either," She continued, adopting a more serious tone, "This monolith…it had to have been built by Palmans!"

"Palmans? As in the planet Palma? How could that be?" Genis asked, surprised.

"If you look close enough-" Raine began to say, placing her hand on the Monolith. As soon as she did, the column began to make a humming noise and the strange symbols lit up and flashed red.

Everyone gasped with Raine adding an "astounding!"

"It's easier to see the characters now," the FOmarl continued, "Take a look, this symbol should be familiar."

She pointed to the top center of the column. It was an engraved ring with three circles arranged in a triangle. Three engraved long points extended "under" these circles, originating form a point in the center.

"That's…is that the Crest of Algo?" Colette exclaimed in disbelief.

"It looks an awful lot like it," Genis said, "But could it really be Palmans?"

"What about all that weird writing?" Lloyd asked, "It doesn't look like our language."

Running her hand over it the professor answered, "I believe its Esper Script. I can't be certain since we only have a few examples of it."

"Esper…Script?" Lloyd repeated slowly.

"Great Light, you should at least know who the Espers are," Genis said, rolling his eyes.

"Oh, oh! I remember now! They're the ones back in Algo who can use real magic!" Lloyd exclaimed.

"Well it seems not all my lessons were in vain," Raine commented.

"But I thought they all stayed in Algo," Colette said.

"They did. Since the mid AW 1200's the Espers began to go into hiding after the Mother Brain computer system was entirely integrated into Algo. By the time Palma was destroyed, all of them had gone to the third planet Dezoris. None of them escaped in the World Ships. The Espers have their own system of writing, but all we have are a few examples of it written in texts. I recognized a few characters on this monolith, but very few."

Lloyd didn't exactly grasp everything the FOmarl said but he asked, "So, why did they come here and where are they now?"

"If I knew that then I would tell you," Raine replied, "However I might be able to decipher these character…To finally decode their language…that was be quite a feat!"

The Silver-haired Force commenced using her radar device to scan the Monolith. Once she finished that, she typed away on a holographic keyboard.

"This could take a while," Genis sighed, "At least we weren't planning on going to Central Dome until tomorrow."

"Wow, this tastes great, Genis!" Lloyd exclaimed, having sampled the ramen he made.

As evening was already falling when they reached the monolith, the hunters set up camp all while Raine worked with the Esper Script. After concluding that there simply weren't enough characters to decipher it, she stopped shortly before Genis finished making dinner, which Lloyd was thoroughly enjoying.

"Yes," Colette agreed, "you're a really good cook."

"Heh, it's out of necessity," the Newman replied, "I had to learn to cook since Raine here can't cook toast."

That remark earned him a smart rap on the head.

"I only need more practice," she said.

"There's a difference between 'practicing' and 'experimenting'."

The boy received another hit from his sister.

"Heh, I guess your parents work a lot if you have to cook, Genis," Lloyd said.

Both Forces became very quite, making the HUmar wonder if he said something wrong.

"Our father died many years ago and our mother…" Raine paused for a while, her features changing to a more sad appearance," Our mother was a biologist sent onboard the _Pioneer 1 _to study Ragol's wildlife."

"I'm…really sorry…"Lloyd said, lowering his head.

"There's no need to be sorry, Lloyd. You couldn't possibly have known about it," the older Force said.

"So then this mission is personal to both of you," the brown-haired Hunter said.

"That's right. That's the real reason I wanted to come with Raine," Genis said, "To help look for our mother. Or at least find out what happened to her."

"I know exactly what you're going through!" Lloyd stated, "My father was also on Pioneer 1. I agreed immediately to joining a hunter team so I could find out what happened to him."

"So that's why you were so eager to start," Genis said.

"It's should come as no surprise that several hunters the government hired have family that were on _Pioneer 1_," Raine stated.

After dinner was over, the younger hunters played a few multiplayer games using their radar devices as Raine, feeling she was not finished yet, continued to look over the Esper characters. A few hours later, Genis, Colette and Raine prepared to turn in for the night with Lloyd keeping the first watch. Before Colette headed for the tent she shared with Raine she saw her friend the HUmar staring into the fire.

"Are you okay, Lloyd?" She asked, walking over to him.

"Hm? Oh, no I'm fine. I was just thinking," he replied, snapping out of it.

"About your father?"

The young Hunter only nodded sadly.

"Oh, I'm sorry Lloyd. That just came out."

"No, no it's okay. You don't have to apologize."

"Okay…sorry." The boy let out a sigh.

"You know, we've been through the first forest and didn't see anyone. Central Dome is somehow in one piece even though we all saw that explosion. Rico left these messages but we haven't seen here, either. Then there are all these animals attacking us…I still hope he's alive, but I'm stating to have doubts…"

The blond HUmarl sat down next to him. With a bit of a sad look she said, "I wish I could tell you that he's alright. For now though, all we can do is search for him and everyone else that was on _Pioneer 1_. If he's out there, we'll find him."

"You're right, Colette," Lloyd said after a brief moment of silence, a small smile crossing his features, "I knew that. I guess it's because I haven't seen him in seven years and I never thought anything like this would happen to him."

I can only imagine what your going through, Lloyd. But I'll try to help in any way I can."

The male Hunter's smile became bigger, "Thanks, Colette.

"I have a feeling he's out there…somewhere…" She continued, laying her head on Lloyd's shoulder and closing her eyes.

"Sleepy?" her friend asked.

"A little…"

"Then maybe you should get to bed. It'll be your turn to keep watch in a few hours."

"Alright…" The girl reluctantly got up.

"Good night, Colette."

"Good night, Lloyd."

* * *

"Man, monster after monster after monster. This is starting to get really boring." 

"Boring? Did you see how many of those animals we fought back there?"

"Yeah but they were still easy to beat and it's the same kinds." The young Force sighed.

The following day the Hunter party took a small warp transporter to the top of the plateau where Central Dome was. On the way to the Dome's entrance they encountered wave after wave of Boomas, Wolves, Rappies, Monests and Mothmants, and even two Hildebears. Despite the large amount of enemies (or perhaps because of it) Lloyd was already complaining about how boring it was.

"Okay so how are we getting into the Dome anyway?" Lloyd asked, "The door's busted."

"There may be another way…ah, there," Raine replied, seeing a nearby transporter, "Perhaps it leads to the inside."

They gathered inside the transporter, which indeed did take them within the Dome.

A collection of shouts and gasps came from their mouths as soon as they were inside.

High up near the roof of the Dome and lowering to the ground was a gigantic winged reptile.

"There are dragons on Ragol?" Lloyd exclaimed the obvious.

The monster appeared to be thirty feet in length from the tip of its snout to the tips of its spilt tail. It was mainly orange in color with areas of rougher-looking green scales. From its forehead grew a long curved horn. Unlike the dragons on Symphonia, its extra-long forelimbs doubled as its wings, more like the Symphonian drakes and wyverns.

"It's the Ragolian dragon to be exact," Raine said, looking at her radar, "Again, convergent evolution."

The dragon landed on the ground, causing it to shake and unleashed a powerful roar.

"This could be tough," Lloyd said with Colette and Genis agreeing.

The giant reptile began by lowering it head, releasing a powerful stream of flames. All four hunters managed to avoid the bulk of the damage.

They ran closer to the dragon. Colette and the Forces stopped at the same distance; Colette sending Sawcer slashes at the monster's head and the Forces trying Gizonde bolts, the mid-level lightening Technique. Though risky, Lloyd ran over to the dragon's feet, tearing into its talons with his Musashi. While the Photons had little trouble piercing its scales, Lloyd spent more time avoiding being crushed by its feet than actual hurting it.

The dragon attempted to torch the hunters further away from it. Colette avoided the monster's attack in a rather unconventional way; having fallen down while trying to avoid it, the flame stream missed her completely. The Forces had to use a quick Resta on themselves after being burned by the dragon's fire.

"I don't think Gizonde really cutting it," Genis said. "Maybe we should try Gibarta."

"Perhaps, but that would involve getting closer to it," Raine said.

"Lloyd's still keeping it busy," Genis pointed out, "I think we'll be fine."

Getting closer to the winged reptile first, Genis released a slow but concentrated freezing mist that hit its side. The dragon roared in obvious discomfort. It suddenly flew up, the wind from its wings knocking Lloyd down.

"It did _not _like that ice," Genis commented.

The dragon continued to climb higher, so much so that the only thing that could hit it were normal Zonde bolts, which everyone used on it. Once its head was nearly scrapping against the ceiling, it suddenly dived toward the ground at an amazing velocity, burrowing into it. The violent shockwave that followed its plunge underground knocked more than just Colette off their feet.

"Okay, I don't think the dragons back on Symphonia could go underground!" Lloyd exclaimed.

"Everyone, keep an eye on your radar," Raine instructed, "It can still keep track of its movements.

The reptile appeared as a large yellow circle onscreen, though they could see the dragon burrowing toward them by the track of earth it created. It was quick though, occasionally striking and injuring the hunters which had to be healed with a Resta after each one.

From the center of the Dome, the giant reptile flew out from underground, landing on the floor.

"That burrowing trick of its could make things more difficult than they need to be," Lloyd said, "But I think I have an idea to stop it!"

He looked directly at Genis and Raine, "Can you two freeze its legs and tail with Gibarta. Once its stuck, I'll finish it off."

"It might work if I use Rabarta with Genis' Gibarta," Raine replied.

"Great. Colette, we'll distract the dragon while they get close enough," the HUmar continued.

"Okay, Lloyd."

The male Hunter went back to slashing at the monster's talons and avoiding getting crushed by them while the female Hunter pestered it further with her Sawcer. Meanwhile the Forces moved closer to the monstrous creature.

"Now!" Lloyd shouted, jumping out of the way.

Genis released the Gibarta while his sister unleashed a faster and higher concentrated mister that came out all around her. The dragon roared out again as both its legs and part of its tail were encased in ice. The dragon turned its head, preparing to melt the ice off but was stopped by a second Gibarta from Genis aimed at its head. Raine froze its wings when it tried to claw the ice off.

That was Lloyd's cue. He climbed up the monster's tail then ran up its back until he reached the base of its long neck. Before the dragon could turn to face him, he plunged both Musashi into its neck, severing its spinal cord and major artery. Its body went limp, crashing to the ground.

The HUmar breathed a sigh of relief. He jumped off the dead reptile, joining the others for a group Resta from Raine. The two Forces took an Orange Gel apiece, which relived them of their mental fatigue from using so many Techniques.

"That was amazing, Lloyd!" Colette cheered.

"Heh, but I didn't do it alone," he responded, "You all helped."  
"Yes, but you were the one who thought of the idea to freeze it," she pointed out.

"She's right," Genis added, "Apparently you can think."

"Hey!"

"I believe my brother meant that you could use that reasoning you have in battle for other areas, such as achemdemics," Raine explained after smacking the Newman kid on the head.

"Heh-heh, how do you think I graduated form the academy?" Lloyd replied. Raine let out a sigh.

For the first time the hunters could really look around the Dome. The entire building was empty. The dragon or other animals may have already destroyed everything within it. Or perhaps the explosion had done it.

"Nothing! There isn't anything in here either!" Lloyd shouted angrily.

"I understand how you feel, Lloyd but there's no need to be rash," Raine siad, "It's possible that they managed to escape. After all, since there's no sign of anyone, they may have left here quite some time ago."

"You could be right," the HUmar replied with a nod.

"In any case, we have to report our findings to the Principal. Then we can be told when and where to continue the investigation."

* * *

Five days had passed since the hunter team retuned to _Pioneer 2_. They (mainly Raine) submitted a report of their investigation, including the sudden change in the animals' behaivor and Rico's messages. 

The four of them once again stood before Prinmcipal Dorr,

"While it is unfortunate that your first investigation yielded little, we have found an area where thoes from _Pioneer 1 _may have or had been.

"Where?" Lloyd practically shouted.

Not minding the interuption, Dorr continued, "There are a vast system of caves underneath the surface of the planet, not far from Central Dome.We have detected transporters and some possible machine activity. It's more than likely that Pioneer 1 had been to the caves already, and could perhaps be hinding out in them. It's worth investigating."

"Understood, Sir," they all said.

The principal nodded, "Before you begin though, I must request that you four accept some new hunters to your team. Since these caverns are complex, we feel it's necessary to increase the size of the hunter teams, especially after hearing about the native wildlife."

"I wouldn't mind," Lloyd said.

"We worked well together, so they'll quite likely match us with hunters we know," Raine said.

"Or at least can cooperate with," Genis added.

"They say the more, the merrier," Colette said cheerfully.

"I'm glad you all agreed to this. We've already chosen two hunters to join you. As a matter of fact we called both of them here, but only one has arrived so far."

"Sir, the other hunter has just arrived by the transporter," the Sectretary Aisha said.

"Good timing. Send them both in," he told her.

As a figure appeared in the transporter, the door to one of the other rooms opened. A young woman with black hair (or dark violet depending on the light) and a young man with red hair took one step forward before they caught sight of each other.

"It's you!"

* * *

Hm…so who could these two be, huh? XD 

My, that was a long chapter. Hope none of you mind too much.

I also have a few explaintory notes in case something was a bit confusing. First thing is the naming of Techniques. As you've seen there are three main types of elemental attack Techniques: Foie, Barta and Zonde which are Fire, Ice and Lightening respectively (distrub not the harmony of-- :Barely avoids fruit being thrown at her: Okay, okay I won't say it oO). These are the first level or Simple attacks. The next levels of Techs are referred to as Normal Attacks and have the "Gi" prefix in front of the name (Gifoie, Gibarta, Gizonde). They typically are stronger and hit multiple monsters. The last levels are the called Hard Attacks and have the "Ra" prefix (Rafoie, Rabarta, Razonde). They are very powerful and hit many enemies withing a certain area.

You may have noticed that Genis said "Great Light" instead of "Martel". I've changed a future part of this story a bit and now Martel is no longer a goddess (I've also replaced "Martel's sake" with "Great Light's sake" in chapter 2). The Great Light is a sort of deity from the Phantasy Star universe. I can't explain any more about the Great Light or why I changed it. That'll come later (much later).

I should've said this earlier, but any mentions I make of Algo and/or the planet Palma are actually in reference to the original Phantasy Star RPGs. As you may or may not know, Phantasy Star is actually a series of games with one game on the Sega Master System and three for the Sega Genesis (there were also two on the Game Gear but they never left Japan). I believe it is never openly stated that the event in PSO are linked to thoes in the past games, but there's enough evidence to suggest that the events of PSO occur after the original series.

There's one last thing I'd like to say to readers who did play PSO. I'd appreciate it if you didn't include anything in your reviews that could contain spoilers, especially later on. If you have any questions or comments that could contain spoiler, feel free to email me.

Well that's all I have to say, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'll try to get the next one up by the time I promised…maybe even earlier. Guess I'll have to see…in the mean time though, please read and review!


	5. New Teammates

Wow, I got quite a few reviews for last chapter! Thanks everyone! I thought at first that maybe this story wouldn't catch on too much. I'm glad to see people are enjoying this story and I really can't thank you enough. I'm also glad to see that my extra explanations of the world of PSO are helpful to those who never played it. After all, part of the reason I wrote this in this first place was because it seemed to me that few people who played ToS also played PSO.

Well I'm afraid I'll have to change from updating every two weeks to anywhere between two to four weeks, especially now that the semester is coming to a close…My, that first semester of college went by fast…Does anyone else feel like time goes faster the older you get:P

It's official (more or less): We are not allowed to respond to reviewers in our stories :P. Well from now on I'll be responding to you using the new Review Reply function. You should've received one if you reviewed the last chapter (unless I emailed you).

* * *

**Chapter Four: New Teammates **

"You--the government asked you, too?"

"Obviously; I wouldn't be here unless they called on my awesome skill. It looks like we're working together again. Lucky us, huh?"

"Lucky? Lucky for you maybe. How is it that we're always hired together for these things?"

"It must be fate, hunny."

The clearly annoyed young woman, a HUnewearl (Hunter/Newman/Female) kept her dark colored haired tied back Her eyes were brown and she possessed the distinctive long pointed ears of a Hunter Newman. Unlike Force Newmans, her ears stood up rather than pointed outward. She wore the typical (AN: Less revealing than the actual thing if you've played PSO and are familiar with their outfits) HUnewearl garb of a long sleeved shirt, shorts and boots, all violet in color with stripes of silver. She wore the familiar chocker around her neck with her section ID—in her case Redria.

The young man she was annoyed with, a HUmar looked older than her by a few years, maybe in his early twenties while she was in her late teens. His skin was noticeably pale and had long fiery-red hair and eyes a darker blue color than Colette's. The armor he wore was mostly pink and white with black lower portions. Interestingly enough his Section ID badge matched his armor: Pinkal. A white headband wrapped around his forehead.

Lloyd and the others stared at the two new Hunters. Principal Dorr cleared his throat loudly, causing the two to stop and walk closer to his desk.

"This is the hunter team we'd like you to join," Dorr told them, "Please introduce yourselves."

"My name is Sheena Fujibayashi," The HUnewearl compiled.

"The name's Zelos Wilder," the redheaded HUmar added.

The other four hunters introduced themselves. Once they finished the Principal said,

"We're hoping you'll work as well as you did as a team of four. As with before, please report anything you find regarding _Pioneer 1._"

"Understood, sir."

With that Principal Dorr dismissed the six hunters.

"Well, looks like the government really does a good job of making these teams," Zelos said once they were back in the Hunter's Guild area," They teamed me up with three gorgeous Hunnies."

Lloyd, Genis and Colette had similar puzzled looks on their faces. Raine looked annoyed; though nowhere near as annoyed as Sheena.

"You just met them! I can't believe you sometimes," she growled.

"Hey, hey, I meant you too," he replied.

"That's not what I meant!"

"Uh, what did you mean by 'we're always hired together'?" Lloyd asked, trying to change the subject.

Sheena let out a sigh, "You see, for the past few Hunters Guild jobs I took on, I somehow always got paired up with _him." _She further emphasized it by jutting her thumb at the flirtatious HUmar.

"Interesting..." Raine said.

"Like I said, it must be fate," Zelos repeated.

Ignoring him Sheena asked, "So when do we start investigating the Caves?"

"We can begin tomorrow if you two can manage it," Raine replied.

"Tomorrow's no problem for me," The HUnewearl responded.

"Same here. That should give me enough time to say good-bye to all my other Hunnies," Zelos added.

The two new members went their separate ways (despite Zelos' whining of wanting to get to know Colette and Raine better).

"I guess the government can't always make efficient teams," Genis said with a sigh after they were out of earshot.

"It's a bit too early to be saying that Genis," his sister stated.

"I guess, but I have a feeling the Caves are gonna be interesting with those two," he replied.

* * *

"Ugh! Why is it so hot in here?"

Six hunters materialized in a small "room" of Ragol's caverns. Room was an appropriate word since a door closed one end. Obviously it had to have been installed by someone from _Pioneer 1. _

Sheena held two dagger handles, one in each hand, known as the Blade Dance. Unlike other dagger-type weapons, the photons did not activate until they were being used. Over both her shoulders were identical Mags that looked very much like lilac-colored flower petals called Rudra. It's not unusual for Mags to evolve and become two units.

Zelos held a saber with a yellow photon blade, the DB's Saber, which while modeled after a weapon used by Symphonia's military in the past, was still quite powerful. Over both his shoulders were Mags that resembled blocky pink and white tropical fish. They were Vayu and like Sheena's were second stage evolution Mags.

"Take a look at the ground, Lloyd," Genis replied. Several small cracks crisscrossed the floor. An orange-red glow could be seen deep within them.

"Magma," Raine stated, "That would certainly the high heat in this place."

"No kidding," Zelos groaned, "I'm sweating in this armor!"

The HUmar looked over at Sheena. With a sly grin he walked closer to her and said, "I'll bet you aren't hot in that outfit."

That remark earned the redheaded Hunter a sharp blow to the head by a dagger handle.

"Idiot!" She shouted angrily as she hit him (AN: After all, she doesn't dress like some HUnewearls…).

The others gave them odd stares.

"L-let's just move on," Sheena added, her face a bit red from that embarrassing display.

Unlocking the door, the hunters entered a much larger room of the cave. Openings near the walls emitted a red glow, most likely more magma, which kept the room lit.

Also wandering around were several bizarre two-legged creatures covered in green scales and sharp teeth lining their wide mouths. Fin-like structures protruded from their backs and at the end of their long arms were bladed appendages.

"Is it just me, or do those things look like mutant Boomas?" Lloyd observed.

"They're called Evil Sharks," Raine explained, "They do bare a resemblance to Boomas."

"'Evil Sharks'? What kind of name is that?" Zelos asked.

"I'm not the one who came up with the name," Raine replied, "Though they also look very much like bipedal sharks."

With no other way to get through, the hunters ran forward. The Sharks hissed, raising their blades before making their way towards the team. Though faster and stronger than the Boomas in the forest, the hunters still dealt with the beasts easily. Zelos expertly wielded his Saber, slashing and thrusting while blocking the Evil Sharks' slashes with his shield. Sheena's Blade Dance lived up to its name, cutting individual Sharks with incredible speed and agility. Lloyd handled each Shark one at a time while Colette and the Sages attacked several at once with Sawcer slashes and Gifoie techniques.

After the first pack was eliminated, more Evil Sharks came into the room along with a few new creatures. First were the Grass Assassins, looking like singled-eyed oversized praying mantises with scythes for front limbs. Once in a while they would charge at the hunters, trampling them, but with their slow speed they were killed easily. Also the tall plants they saw around the cave were able to move their flower heads. Dubbed Poison Lilies, they spat blobs of toxin and would bite and paralyze the group if they got close. As bothersome as they were, killing them was often as easy as cutting off their flower heads.

"Man, the monsters down here act like they want to kill us ore than the ones in the forest did!" Lloyd exclaimed after they had cleared the room of all monsters.

"No kidding. The Boomas never attacked in packs as big as these sharks do," Sheena agreed. After Lloyd, Colette, Genis and Raine returned from the Forests, hunters were to go to the forests for any reason, be it to complete a job or just to see how tough the wildlife is. Sheena and Zelos had been to the Forests twice for Hunter's Guild jobs so they had dealt with its native creatures.

"Hey, it's another one of those message packs!" Genis exclaimed, looking down.

"Do you think it's from Rico?" Colette asked.

"Only one way to find out," the FOnewmreplied. Being the closest, he turned the device on.

"Wow…" The now familiar woman's voice began, "this cave is a treasure trove of discoveries. Creatures that have never been discovered by people. Completely unknown animals--They look like mutant forms of the native animals. Perhaps the government has kept this a secret…? It's possible…but for what purpose?"

"It's as if we're always one step behind her," Raine said once the message turned off.

"Hey, maybe we'll actually run into her!" Zelos said with a grin, "From what I hear she's one fine hunny!"

"Honestly, can't you ever think of anything else?" Sheena growled.

"Sometimes, but it isn't easy."

Ignoring the Hunters Raine wondered, "Indeed…why would anyone hide these caverns?"

"Uh, why don't we just get go-" the Red-headed HUmar began to say, trying to avoid the HUnewearl's dagger handle. He stopped in mid-sentence after a small metallic object literally flew up from the ground. He jumped back in shock, narrowly avoiding the explosion that ensued quickly after.

"What the hell was that?" he yelled, "That stupid thing could've marred my perfect features!"

"Who knows? It might even be an improvement," Sheena said sarcastically.

"How could you say something like that, Sheena?" he whined.

"A land mine…but why would there be mines here?" Raine wondered

"Maybe they're traps for the monsters?" Sheena suggested, "It might mean people from _Pioneer 1 _really are down here."

"It's plausible…but still…" The FOmarl trailed off.

The team made a quick detour back to _Pioneer 2 _via Ryuker, a special Technique that forms a temporary portal to a set location, to buy Trap Visions to spot out the bombs.

An obvious pattern formed each time they entered a new room: First someone used a Trap Vision, destroying all the mines with Zonde shots. They then destroyed every monster in the area, which included a new dragon-like creature the crew of _Pioneer 1_ dubbed a Nano Dragon. Though much smaller than the dragon they fought in Central Dome (Raine commented how if they were really nano-sized they wouldn't be able to see them) they were among the more dangerous enemies in the Caves. These gray-colored winged reptiles fired two types of laser: one the homed in on its target, making it near unavoidable and the other was a more powerful linear blast that was easily dodged. The Nano Dragons also had an annoying habit of flying away while being attacked. The easiest way to deal with them was to use Zonde repeatedly, which gave them little time to counterattack. Violet colored Sharks called Pal Sharks also attacked the hunters among packs of Evil Sharks.

They encountered other unexpected obstacles such as doors that had to be opened by having several people stand on these footswitches and these bizarre crushing pistons that were mostly located in the "hallways". Further in the cave was a vast room filled with magma. If it weren't for the metallic platform that connected both sides, this "lava room" would've been near impossible to cross. Huge numbers of creature also inhabited the room, almost as if they were guarding it. There was even a pitch-black room. Traversing through it wasn't very fun as it also had monsters, leaving some to try and distract the beasts while the others searched for switches to turn the lights on.

* * *

"Monsters, bombs, lava, doors that won't opening unless we're all standing on those switches, those weird crushing-things, dark rooms where you have to find the light switch…Maybe Rico's right. It sure feels like someone is trying to hide something down here," Lloyd said.

The hunters arrived at a transporter, one that led to a deeper level of the caverns.

"Yeah, this seems to be an awful lot if it's just to protect them from those animals," Sheena commented.

"If anyone is down here, I'm gonna have a few bones to pick with them, especially with those stupid bombs," Zelos muttered.

"How many levels were there to these caves again?" Colette asked the Professor.

"Three, so we still have quite a bit left to explore," Raine replied.

"Great, this is already getting old," Lloyd grumbled.

With that the six gathered inside of it, taking it further into the caverns.

* * *

I hope no one minds I made Sheena a Newman…Aside from the fact that Sheena is the fastest ToS character, the reason I made her a Newman is because she's one of only two characters that doesn't look half bad if you try to recreate them in PSO (the other being Presea). Everyone else though doesn't work out as well (well maybe Raine, but those darn Force hats cover a lot of the head). And yeah she's using daggers. There are card weapons, but those are only usable by Forces.

Also did anyone else find it funny that that Zelos' Section ID is Pinkal? (Section ID's are these badges of sorts given to each hunter. In the game it determines how often your character will find certain weapons and is determined by their name. In this story, it's pretty much just ID and an indication that someone is a licensed hunter). I didn't fudge that either, or anyone else's Section ID assignment for that matter. Seriously, if you have any version of PSO expect for the new Blue Burst, create a new character named "Zelos" (spelled exactly like that, he doesn't even have to be a HUmar). His section ID will be Pinkal! XD

Okay enough of that slight randomness. While perhaps not as good as some of earlier chapters, I hope you enjoyed this one. Expect the next one…hopefully no later than a month from now.


	6. Encounter in the caves

-1Augh! I wanted to try and complete this chapter at least before Christmas but obviously I just wasn't able to. Sigh, I couldn't even get it up before the end of the year… Sorry everyone. Oh well, at least the Fall Semester is over and the Spring one won't start 'til late January, meaning I have a month free to watch all the anime DVDs I got for Christmas, play the games I got (I _finally _finished Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, now onto Pikmin 2 and Riviera: The Promised Land .), see friends who went to other collages, work at my part time job…oh and of course update more frequently!

By the way, I made a few changes to the prologue. Aside from a long over-do spoiler warning, I made it into a sort of songfic using the opening to PSO, "The Whole New World". You don't really need to read it of course, just thought I'd let you know. Well surely you'd rather get to the chapter instead of hearing any more ramblings from this madwoman. So without further, here's Chapter Five.

* * *

**Chapter Five: Encounter in the Caves**

A hissing sound of sorts emitted from a creature that resembled a slug-like upright pile of blue slime as it literally burst from taking one last slash from a blond HUmarl's Sawcer.

"It seems using ice Techniques is not a good idea on these creatures," Raine commented.

The creature, a Pofuilly Slime, was so far the only new one the hunter group encountered. Much to their horror, it was discovered that those monsters somehow spilt into two if ice Techniques were used on them. Though they were easy enough creatures to defeat, it was a bit of a drawback to the new area they were exploring.

The second level of caves was not lava-filled like the first, already a welcome relief to the six. The walls and cave floor were made of a light blue-gray stone and apparently enough light could get through, as there was no magma or artificial lights in any part of the cave.

The room they were in at the time contrasted quite a bit with the last level of caves and it was even different from the earlier parts of the second level. The ceiling was open to the sky, allowing sunlight through. The opening was most likely in the path of a river as water flowed down the sides of the cave wall and covering the floor.

"Look over here! From this angle you can see a rainbow," Colette said.

"Wow, you're right!" Lloyd said, walking over to where the HUmarl was.

"And yet even in a place like this, there were all these stupid monsters," Genis sighed.

"It's a shame. Ragol is a beautiful planet yet no one can appreciate it with the people of _Pioneer 1 _missing," Raine said.

"Especially everyone from _Pioneer 1_..." Lloyd trailed off.

With the north gate unlocked the team pressed forward. Two small streams flowed on both sides of the narrow hallway they walked through, the source being the "Waterfall Room". Moss grew on the floors and walls and for once they encountered animals in the caves that were not trying to kill them; insects that resembled dragonflies and strange creatures that looked liked levitating jellyfish.

After looking like nothing else in the caves could rival the Waterfall Room, the connecting chamber quickly dispelled that notion. Large shallow ponds occupied much of the room. Also open to the sky, grasses and shrubs grew along the banks as more "dragonflies" skimmed over the water surface.

The hunter didn't have the chance to appreciate the natural wonder though since as soon as they were met with two battling Newmans.

The older one, a HUnewearl nearly as old as Raine, had long blue-green hair and wore a green halter and shorts. In both hands she held a long metal staff with a curved photon blade at the top, a weapon-type known as a partisan.

The Newman she was locking blades didn't even look like a licensed hunter as she didn't have a Section ID badge. She was quite young, perhaps around Genis' age which would normally have made her a first-year Hunter's Academy student. Her pink hair was tied in two pigtails and her ears were those of a Hunter Newman: straight up rather than outward. In her possession was a Photon axe. Even with a blade made of light particles, the handle alone should've been too heavy for the young girl to lift, let alone wield properly.

The older woman quickly swung her partisan in a wide arc, knocking the axe from the pink-haired girl's hands and knocking her down. The HUnewearl held her weapon at the girl's throat.

"Okay, just who are you?" She asked, narrowing her eyes.

The young girl said nothing. She only stared back at the woman through emotionless blue eyes.

"Hey! What are you doing to her?" Genis shouted angrily.

The blue-green haired woman turned her head toward the group briefly, but it was enough for the young Newman to leap away, grab her axe and run toward one of the gates leading out of the room.

"Hey!" The older Newman yelled, running after the fleeting girl. By the time she reached the gate, the girl was nowhere in sight.

"How did she move that fast?" she muttered under her breath.

By then the group had moved into the room. The HUnewearl turned to face the hunters.

"Now, what was a beautiful hunny like you doing attacking a little girl like that?" Zelos spoke up first.

A brief scowl crossed her face but she replied, "Believe it or not, she was the one who attacked me."

A collective "huh?" came from most of the team.

"Oh Rapier, there you are!"

From the opposite exist to where the young girl exited ran in a woman with long orange hair in a ponytail, A RAcaseal (Ranger/Android/Female) holding a powerful-looking rifle in both arms. Her head looked like any normal human woman, but the rest of her body was composed of blue and white metal. While still uncommon, several androids have chosen to have more human-like heads.

"Ritema! I can guess you haven't joined up with the others." The Newman the android called Rapier stated.

"You'd be right , Rapier," The android the Newman called Ritema replied after reaching her," So did you find anything? And…who are these guys?" She indicated the hunter team.

"Bit of an interesting story," Rapier responded. "I was about to tell them."

She turned her attention back toward the six and continued, "I'm Rapier and this is Ritema. We're part of a hunter team sent to investigate the disappearance of _Pioneer 1_, just like you I can imagine. As we were down here, we saw that pink-haired girl, but she quickly got away from us. Thinking she could have been from Pioneer 1, the six of us spilt up to search for her.

It was when I came into his room that I encountered her again. She attacked me almost as soon as I came in…and she's freakishly strong!"

"Freakishly?" Lloyd repeated.

"You saw that axe. It might've been just the Brave Axe, but a girl that doesn't look a day over twelve couldn't hold that thing," Rapier said.

"Highly unusual…but it doesn't sound like she'd have any connection to _Pioneer 1,_" Raine said.

"Which is why I'm not looking for her," Rapier turned to face Ritema, "I think it's about time we look for the others."

"Right. Well it was nice meeting you all," Ritema said to Rapier, then to the group.

As the female hunters made their way out of the room Zelos started walking toward them calling out (more so to Rapier), "Hey wait up, baby. That wasn't a proper introduction. You don't even know my name!"

"Get back here you idiot!" Sheena shouted, "We have an investigation of our own!"

"Now, now hunny, there's no need to get worked up. It was just a bit rude of them to leave so suddenly."

"I'm not getting worked up!"

"Whatever you say, hunny." Sheena grumbled.

"You know, it's a bit of a shame that RAcaseal Ritema is an android," The redhead continued.

"What--"

"Uh, anyway, should we be looking for that strange girl?" Lloyd asked, "What if she does know something about _Pioneer 1?"_

"It wouldn't make any sense if she was from _Pioneer 1_. Why would she attack someone if she or the rest of Pioneer 1 are hiding," Genis said.

"I know that, but it's the only lead of any kind we've had," The younger HUmar replied.

"Regardless all we can do at this time is keep searching these caverns. If we do encounter her again then we can ask questions," Raine stated.

The hunter team took the northwestern gate out of the of the room, the same one the young girl ran out of in case they met up with her again.

* * *

"Incredible! It's another one, another monolith like the one in the forest!"

The FOmarl professor rushed over to giant freestanding column in the center of the room they were in, leaving a group of five stunned hunters.

"Okay, so it's like that tall stone thing in the forest. What's the big deal?" Zelos asked.

"BIG DEAL? This monolith possesses a connection to the Espers of Algo, the solar system of our ancestors. Of course it's a 'big deal'!" She shouted at the redhead.

"Uh okay…"He replied a bit startled.

"Wait, Espers? Algo? How they have gotten to Ragol?" Sheena asked.

"Hmm…if it is like the one in the forest…"Raine began to say. She placed her hands on the side of the column. Just like the one in the forest, it began emitting a low hum and the engraved markings glowed. Instead of red though, it was a light blue.

"Just like the other one," Colette said.

"Oh I see it, the Crest of Algo," Sheena said, "But still…how? How did they get here before we did?"  
"That's what I'd like to know!" Raine exclaimed in a serious tone, " These characters…. Indeed! They are different from the ones of the other monument! Maybe even enough for me to decipher the Esper script!"

She quickly went to work, scanning the monolith with her computer before attempting to decode the writings.

"This kind of stuff gets her excited?" Zelos asked no one in particular.

"You have no idea," Genis sighed.

"Hey guys, check it out, another message pack," Lloyd said, standing hear the monolith. He then turned the orange device on.

"My first question about Ragol was 'Why didn't any sentient life exist here?" Rico's message began, "But…look at this monument! This is identical to the one I saw in the forest. It's NOT ours though…was there an ancient civilization on Ragol? But these monuments are the only evidence I see…it'd be strange if there was a civilization indeed…van I decipher the characters with my simple tools?"

"Sen.. tie…what?" Lloyd asked after it finished.

"Self-aware life forms, like ourselves," Raine immediately answered.

"Oh…then why didn't she just say that?

"I can understand if she didn't have any access to the few Esper characters we have but didn't she see the Crest of Algo?" Raine continued, "Surely a scientist like her should be able to notice a vital clue like that."

"There's another one here!" Sheena said, having spotted it. She then activated it.

"Ah, the characters on the monument…I don't have any idea how to proceed. I need more samples. Wait…could…it be? Is that the Crest of Algo? Palmans created these columns? I suppose it's not impossible but…"

"Well it seems I misjudged her a bit," Raine retracted. She then continued her work on the monument.

Another hour-and-a-half passed before Raine said, "I can make out a few words: 'light', 'darkness', 'pair' 'exist' but it's still hardly enough to understand what it's saying…I'm not doing much better than Rico is seems."

No one in particular was paying attention as they kept themselves preoccupied by reading or playing multiplayer games. With the FOmarl finished, they were able to make they're way through the rest of the caverns, reaching the transporter to the third and last level.

* * *

Okay first off a few notes (those who never played PSO can pretty much ignore this fist part): Those of you who played PSO may wonder how the RAcaseal Ritema could have a human-like head when such androids are only creatable in PSO Episode III. Do you remember the android Shino in the Seek My Master Hunter's Guild Quest? She had a human face but RAcaseal body. Perhaps in twenty-one years, androids with human-like heads become more commonplace, but there are still a few during Episodes I and II.

Also, this'll probably be the only time I'll have a few "OC's". I'm not one who really uses original characters and besides, it's more of a cameo appearance than anything (as you maybe can guess, Rapier is actually my PSO character. Ritema is just a Ranger character I never really use).

I'm pretty sure you can guess who the mystery-girl is, but you have to sit tight a few chapters more before everything is explained. Until then thanks for reading and please review (I'm getting tired of people reading and not leaving reviews…I can check the hits for each chapter, you know!).


	7. From Seeing the Rough Wave

I thought I could get out one chapter a week during the month between semesters, but sadly I only managed to put up two. It seemed work combined with new anime DVD volumes and boxsets (Last Exile, Pretear, Descendants of Darkness, and Gokudo just to name a few XD), friends I haven't seen since summer, and the games Pikmin 2 and Riviera: The Promised Land (especially Riviera. It's a shame it isn't that well know :cough:checkthisgameoutifyouhaven'talready:cough: ) and sleep were enough to prevent me from doing so. Well soon it'll be back to an update once every two-to-four weeks again. I'm really sorry everyone:Bows deeply:

Er, enough of that. Here's chapter six, the last of the Caves chapters. I hope you enjoy this one.

* * *

**Chapter Six: From Seeing the Rough Wave**

"Hold on a sec here? A giant worm? She can't be serious! Play that again."

"I don't see how that will change what she said."

Raine turned the orange pack back on, the light again raising up form the ground.

"I saw it with my own eyes! An animal metamorphosed when it was pierced by a tentacle from that giant worm! Were the monsters I saw in the cave all changed by that giant worm?"

"It does sound incredulous, but I don't believe Rico would be the type to make up something like that," Raine commented.

"This planet just keeps getting weirder and weirder," Lloyd sighed.

"You don't think the rest of _Pioneer 1 _ran into that monster do you?" Colette asked, concerned.

"We have no way of knowing," Raine admitted, "All we can do is keep searching. But still that is highly unusual…an animal that can mutate other creatures…"

The third and final level of caves was even deeper than the last two. It was also evident that human activity was far more abundant with lights installed in most rooms and some areas covered by metallic flooring. They hoped that perhaps the people of _Pioneer 1 _had chosen to hide in the last level, or at least some clue as to their whereabouts.

After traveling through part of the trap-and-monster-infested cavern, the hunters stopped in a small room for the night, where they found that particular message from Red Ring Rico. Startling as it was, they could do little about it at the time. After dinner, Raine attempted to translate the Esper Script again while Genis and Lloyd played a game using their radar computers with Zelos joining in shortly after.

"Hey, do you two want to play too when they're done with their match?" Lloyd asked Colette and Sheena, indicating Genis and Zelos. The girl hunters were sitting near each other.

"Sure," they both replied.

"Hey Sheena, if your guys run out of power points, maybe you can body slam the opponent with that voluptuous body of yours," Zelos said to the dark-violet-haired Newman.

"Do you want me to use my Blade Dance on you properly next time?" she threatened.

"It was only a suggestion." Sheena let out an exasperated sigh.

The verbal exchange between the two Hunters reminded Colette of a question that had been on her mind. She asked Sheena, "How long have you known Zelos?"

"Hm?" was the HUnewearl's reply.

"Oh sorry," the blonde apologized, realizing how out-of-the-blue it sounded, "You don't have to answer if you don't want to."

"It's okay, I don't mind," Sheena responded, "Well I've known him since _Pioneer 2_ left Symphonia.

"For three-and-a-half-years? So you met a little after the ship left for Ragol?"

"A bit before that, just before I got on Pioneer 2 now that I think about it."

"Oh. How…" Colette let trail off. That was enough of bugging her with questions, she though.

""'Did we meet?'" Sheena completed for her. The HUmarl looked a little embarrassed.

"Sorry, I'm being nosy, aren't I?"

" You don't have to apologize. Like I said I don't mind. Anyway, it was on the day when I had to board the _Pioneer 2 _for the census. I was late so I ran over to the cocking area where I tripped."

"You tripped? But I'm the one who usually does that," Colette said with a giggle.

"Well I have been told I can be clumsy for a HUnewearl. Anyway after I tripped someone helped me up, none other than that guy over there," Sheena pointed over to the redheaded who was furiously pressing buttons on his radar computer, " I thanked him but by then I was running really late so I didn't get the chance to learn his name. It wasn't until a few weeks later that I ran into him again. While I recognized him as the guy who helped me up, at that time he was surrounded by group of girls. You'd probably think he was some kind of celebrity or something. He recognized me too…

After that I hoped never to see that philanderer again. Apparently though the Great Light had other plans. Almost every time I took on a two-hunter or group Guild job, we were somehow hired together. I even worked with him on a job three-days before we joined you guys, looking for some biologist who was running around in the Forests disguised as a Rag Rappy."

"What?"

"I'm guessing it was some sort of holographic cloaking thing."

"I would actually like to try that, looking like a Rappy," Colette laughed lightly, "You and Zelos have an interesting friendship."

"'Friendship'" Sheena repeated, "Almost everyone I know says I hate him."

"But you don't, right Sheena? Or you would've joined a different hunter team.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. He annoys me to no end but I can't really say I hate him."

"Ahhh! How could I possibly lose to this jester-brat?" Zelos shouted.

"Don't call me a brat and it's not supposebe a jester! I'm not the one who designed the FOnewm outfit!" Genis shouted back.

"Well it sounds like they finished over there," Sheena said. The two of them got up to walk over to the guys.

"Hey why don't we have a double battle this time," Lloyd suggested, "Oh wait, there's five of us."

"I'll sit this one out since I won the last battle," Genis said.

"Good idea Lloyd," Colette said, "Why don't we make it girls versus boys?"

"Aww, but I wanted to be paired up with one of you Hunnies," Zelos said in a mock whine.

* * *

"This is suppose to be last level of the caves, right? Then why is there a transporter here?" Sheena said as she and the others stood in front of the large machine. 

"It could lead to anywhere really…but seeing as the rest of the tunnels led to dead-ends, it doesn't look like was have a choice," Raine replied.

"Well as long we don't run into any more of those Pan Arms, " Genis said, remembering the bizarre beast. Aside from being composed of two creatures that could interlock their tails together to become one, it was near impervious to photon weapons until it spilt apart.

They gathered, underneath the machines, taking it to the coordinates that were already set. When they materialized again, they found themselves near the bank of an underground river. Not far from the transporter was a dock with a large raft. Reasoning that perhaps there would be something or someone downstream, they got on.

"Man, if they are down here, they sure went out of the way to hide," Lloyd commented.

"'If' is right," Genis, said, "I'm starting to won…" The young Force suddenly stopped, staring at a point far upstream. Sheena too was staring at the same point upstream.

"What is it?" Colette asked.

Do you hear something?" Raine asked. Their long ears give Newmans a slightly larger hearing range than humans.

"Splashing" was both their reply.

"You should be able to hear it soon too," Sheena added.

Everyone else turned his or her attention upstream. Sure enough they all heard a splashing noise, faint at first but growing louder very quickly. In a matter of seconds though the noise became unimportant.

A loud roar echoed throughout the underground waterway as something huge came into view, racing toward the raft. Something that looked very much like a giant worm.

"How did I know this was gonna happen? It's that worm Rico was talking about!" Exclaimed a wide-eyed Genis.

"Great! We're sitting ducks on this stupid raft!" Zelos shouted.

The creature leaped out of the water a few times, revealing that it was more like a centipede than a worm. Rows of small legs lined its body as well as two large fin-like appendages near its head. As it got close, they could see the orange and gray monster's head was composed of a large skull with a long snout and bristling with sharp fangs. Four long yellow tendrils grew near the base of its head; most likely the tentacles Rico spoke of in little time the monster was swimming alongside the raft.

"De Rol Le," Raine said as the creature was close enough to use her computer, "Or that's what the people of _Pioneer 1_ named it.

"It's starting to pass us," Genis said, "Maybe for once something on this planet is going to kill us?"

The boy got his answer once the De Rol Le was in front of the raft. It raised its tail end before diving underwater, shooting out several spikes at the hunters. They avoided the spikes and stayed away, a wise choice since shortly after they exploded.

"So much for it not trying to kill us!" Lloyd exclaimed.

The enormous centipede-like monster resurfaced, again swimming alongside the raft. To keep it fro coming any close and turning the raft over everyone fired Techniques at it, save for Colette since her Sawcer was a long-range weapon. Based on the loud growl it let out, Genis Sheena Zelos and Lloyd stuck to hitting the beast with Foie. In an impressive display, Raine used her Rafoie, engulfing much of its body in a huge fireball.

The De Rol Le leaped up, releasing several purple spheres of light form spots along the sides of its body. The hunters immediately broke off form their attacks to avoid them, but everyone was hit by at least one of the swift spheres.

Recuperating from the attack, they were about to continue hounding the monster when it sudden; leaped toward the raft, jaws wide open. They barely avoided the attack after it had sunk its fangs into the raft's left side. Rather than letting go, it attempted to stab the hunters using its tentacles.

"Come on, now's our chance!" Lloyd shouted, rushing at the monster's side before slashing at the base of its skull with his Musashi. Zelos and Sheena followed suit, their DB's Saber and Blade Dance piercing through the hard casing that covered its body with ease and cutting off it's tentacles as it tried to shake them off. Once all four were gone the creature let go of the raft, diving underwater.

It quickly resurfaced behind the raft, too far to reach with Techniques or Sawcer slashes. The centipede-like monster raised its upper body until its head nearly touched the ceiling. It opened its bony jaws, making a sound like breathing in deeply before firing a brilliant and fast beam of light. The six hunters bolted to the sides of the raft as the laser cut across the lengthwise center of the raft. It fired another laser, this one crossing the raft in a diagonal and missing several of them within a hair's breath.

"AH-AAH!" Genis cried in great pain. Despite his best efforts to avoid the De Rol Le's third laser blast, it struck the young boy head on, and knocking him off his feet.

"Genis!" the FOnewm's sister cried. Not wasting a moment she held out both her hands. A bright white light engulfed his body then flashed in a blinding burst before vanishing altogether.

"Wha…what happened?" the silver-haired boy said a bit groggily, slowly getting back up.

"Thank Great Light you're safe. That monster's laser severely injured you. I had to use Reverser," Raine said, breathing a sigh of relief. While Reverser is a powerful healing technique capable of reviving someone on the brink of death one hundred percent of the time, she was still concerned.

"I'm fine, it did the trick," her brother assured her, "But, what happened to that thing anyway?"

"After that last laser breath, it slowed its speed and dove back underwater," Raine explained.

"Yeah but something tells me it's not finished with us yet," Sheena added.

Sure enough, an increasingly louder rumbling sound was heard before the De Rol Le came back into view…crawling on the cave ceiling!

"Now what's that thing trying to do?" Zelos more shouted than asked as it was becoming obvious. As the monster crawled, it loosened large chunks of earth and rock, causing it to rain down on the hunters once it passed over them. While they avoided being hit directly by the debris, the force from the impact with the raft knocked several of them off their feet.

"Meeee…meeep, meeeee…" Sheena's Mag began to chant as they bounced excitedly over her shoulders.

"So it's ready? Prefect," She said as she stood back up.

"Meep!" The small robots chimed.

Once it passed over the raft the creature dove back into the water, resurfacing behind them once more.

"Don't tell me…" more than one of them said.

The De Rol Le raised its upper body for a second time.

"Not this time!" Sheen exclaimed, moving toward the center of the raft. Before anyone could react she raised both her daggers shouting " Rudra, Golla!" Both her Mags chanted louder all while the monster took in a deep breathe. A circle of light, the Crest of Algo, suddenly appeared below the HUnewearl's feet.

And time itself seemed to freeze.

The others stood wordlessly as everything except for themselves and the De Rol Le was washed in a seamless multicolored background. The monster in question was frozen in place even though everyone could still move.

An enormous figure quickly appeared high above the female Newman, resembling a glowing yellow elk or deer.

The figure reared up on its hind legs, letting out a high-pitched cry. As it did what looked like lightening gathered in its antlers. It slammed its front hooves down, releasing the built-up energy directly on the De Rol Le.

Instantly the scenery changed back to normal, the elk-like figure already having vanished. The monster let loose an ear-piercing shriek before falling over backwards, sinking beneath he river.

"…That was a Photon Blast, right?" Lloyd said in awe.

"Yes, Golla the Elk to be exact," Sheena replied.

"Wow, that was the first time I saw one," Colette said.

"Ditto," Genis added.

A Mag uses a Photon Blast after it has gathered enough excess Photon energy from its master's attacks and the attacks of the opponent. It releases this energy, which take the form of a massive being that performs the attacks, healing, etc.

"That was awesome! You were like a Summoner from an RPG!" Lloyd said.

"Well if she's a Summoner, that must make me the drop dead gorgeous main character," Zelos added.

"Riiight…" Sheena replied, rolling her eyes, "I can't imagine anyone who would who would want to play an RPG with you as a character."

"Let alone the main one," Genis added.

"Ouch, that was seriously harsh you two!" Zelos said.

"It's not like I'm the only one who can do it," Sheena pointed out. "Any hunter can use a Photon Blast so long as they have a Mag."

"It would be near impossible to recover that creature's body," Raine said to no one in particular, "It's a shame really.

"Why would you want to do that? Don't tell me you want to examine it?" Genis asked, narrowing his eyes.

"Not me necessarily," she replied, "Any exobiologist would want the chance to study an organism capable of genetically altering other species…It certainly is fascinating …what consequences of evolutions could lead to such a trait? I wonder what are the chances of encountering another one down here…?"

The others gave her a fish-eyed looked, though Colette's was less exaggerated.

"It was only a thought…"

The hunters took the time to heal wounds with Resta and relieve mental fatigue using Orange Gels as they continued downstream. After a while they came upon and landed at a dock, a large metallic door located not too far it.

"Hey! Is anyone in there?" Lloyd shouted once they reached the door.

"Even if anyone were behind this door, they wouldn't be able to hear us," Sheena said, knocking on it, "This is pretty solid."

"There doesn't seem to be any way in though," The HUmar continued, "What do we do now?"

"Call it a day and Ryuker it back to _Pioneer 2_," Zelos replied, "Nothing else we can do."

"He's right," Raine, said, "We should report our findings to the principal anyway. They would also be able to set the transporters coordinates to whatever is behind this door."

"Ah, my Ultra Cool Beauty agrees with me!" Zelos said. The Force cocked an eyebrow. She was about to say, "I'm not even going to ask where you got that nickname from", but she instead created a Ryuker pillar, the others gathering under the beam of light before taking it back home.

* * *

Yup, that was another "Boss chapter". They may make it too close to the game (or viideo games in generalI suppose), but battling these monsters is relevant to the story. You'll see what I mean later on… 

This is about halfway through the story. It's going to be around 14 or 15 chapters, but it's still a long ways away before everything is answered…and there's still Episode II.

Just so non-PSO players know, Mags don't really say "meep". In fact they never really make any sounds. They're suppose to be artificial life forms so I can't imagine them really staying silent. I got the idea from various PSO web comics. I guess it's kind of goofy, but it isn't too hard to imagine small cute floating robots that can manipulate energy to create powerful figures capable of great damage to say "meep", is it?

Well that was my slightly odd author's note for the chapter. Again I hope you enjoyed this chapter.


	8. More Questions Than Answers

Sigh. This came out a little later than I would have liked, and it didn't help that I suddenly wanted to write out that one-shot Vandread (an anime series) fic I had floating around in my head for a while (at least I didn't feel the need to post both at once…). To top it all off, I have a song in Mandarin stuck in my head ("Wo Men De Ai" by F.I.R) so this may not be all that good (Wo men de ai guo le jiu bu zai hui lai…).

Uh…Sorry about that oO. Anyway, I'm quite happy to see I got a few new readers last chapter, including those who played PSO. I know I mentioned this a few times before but I may as well bring it up again. Please try to avoid any spoilers in your reviews. Quite a few readers have either never played PSO or haven't gotten that far in the game. If you have any questions or comments that may be a spoiler, send me a PM or email.

* * *

**Chapter Seven: More Questions Than Answers**

"Meep!" A small robot cheered, taking a tube of Miracle gel sticking out of a bag.

"Hey Sumba, don't eat too many of those! They're expensive!" Genis said to it. The Mag continued to munch happily on the tube's contents.

"Looks like having an evolved Mag isn't all it's cracked up to be," Lloyd said, "They sure eat a lot more."

Not long after their return from Ragol's caverns, Genis' Mag evolved into a Sumba, looking like a single-eyed cat's head, mostly gray with light blue ears. For whatever reason, the Principal took nearly a week to give the hunters their new assignment, during which Lloyd and Colette's Varuna evolved. Two red-and-black blocky fish, Vayu floated over the former's shoulders while two silver and yellow curved robots, Marutah hovered over the latter's.

"Really? Sammy and Lucy don't eat that much," Colette said. Both Marutah chimed in agreement.

"Well they say Mags start to take after their masters after being with them for a while," Genis said.

"What do you—hey!"

With plans to head to the underground complex they discovered—the one the government officials labeled "The Mines"—the following day, the young hunters stocked up on healing items and new Technique disks. Colette and Genis also bought some new weapons, Colette a yellow-photon Diska and Genis a red-colored Scepter.

"Say . . .do you think we'll actually find anything this time?" The Newman boy suddenly asked.

"Well I hope we do but..." Lloyd admitted in a sad tone.

"I know. We've been through the Forests and those caves, but we haven't found anyone, expect for Rico's messages. No one else has found anything on the rest of the planet surface. I'm really starting to doubt that anyone survived but then I'll have to accept that I'll never see my mother again..." Genis hung his head.

"I know," Lloyd, said forlornly, "I know exactly how you feel, Genis. Each time we go out there and find nothing, I think to myself 'is my dad really gone?'"

The HUmar then placed his hand on the young Forces' shoulder, "But we can't sell them short yet, not until we search everywhere we can. Who know? Maybe they did hide in that place underground, waiting for people from _Pioneer 2_. Or maybe they didn't. Besides, it's better to know what happened to them then to not know."

"Lloyd's right," Colette added. "You can't lose hope yet, Genis."

"Thanks you guys," he replied with a smile

It had been barely a month since he'd known them, but he became fast friends with Lloyd and Colette. It didn't matter that he was years younger than they were. He was glad to make friends while having to run around a planet full of irate monsters.

* * *

"So these are the mines, huh?" 

"Looks more like a factory."

Beyond the small room the six arrived in by transporter was a vast area. Steel covered the walls, floor and ceiling. Machines sat on the floor and even on the ceiling, but not a living thing could be found. Cautiously they moved into the room; just because they couldn't see any danger doesn't mean there wasn't any.

Nearing the center of the room, the air in front of them began to shimmer, quickly taking several humanoid shapes. A group of nine robots made of a dark blue and gray metal fully materialized.

Slowly and in an ungainly fashion the machines walked toward the hunters, attempting to punch them when they got close enough. Not surprisingly, the robots were knocked down after a few hits, photon blades dismantling the machines or lighting shots causing them to self-destruct.

"Robots? Why are we being attacked by robots?" Lloyds exclaimed.

"Hey, with every other wild and mutated monster trying to kill us, why not a bunch of robots?" Zelos commented with a sigh.

"Gillchics," Raine said after checking her radar, "They're supposed to be security robots. Not very well built for battle it seems."

More Gillchics then teleported into the room, a few more than last time. Also with them were floating robots that looked like green pointed horseshoes.

"Apparently though what they lack in strength they make up for in numbers," the FOmarl added as an afterthought.

Even with the larger amount of machines, the team of six laid waste to the Gillchics and Canadines, as the green ones were called.

"If these machines are teleporting in here, that's gotta mean someone is sending them, right?" Sheena pointed out, "We wouldn't be able to beat them this easily if they could teleport at will."

"I was thinking the same thing, "Raine remarked, "It could be some sort of automotive defense system however. If it was by the crew of _Pioneer 1 _though, why attack potential rescuers? Still so many questions…"

"Well we did just get here. Hopefully we'll find something down here," Genis said.

"Aside another one of Rico's messages?" Lloyd more stated than asked.

"She really is always one step ahead of us, isn't she?" Colette said. Lloyd agreed before turning the orange pack on.

"I'm attacked by robots this time…what are they? They were customized robots originally for industrial use…who did this? I can understand animals being metamorphosed by a crustacean into mutants, but…these were robots. Somebody modified them. Was it done by someone from _Pioneer 1_?"

"Crustacean? That's what crabs and lobsters are, right?" Lloyd inquired.

"Whoa! Lloyd knows what a crustacean is!" Genis said in mock surprise.

"And he can pronounce it!" Zelos added, mimicking the FOnewm.

"It really isn't that funny," Lloyd muttered. More clearly he continued, "What I was trying to ask was how was that De Rol Le monster a crustacean?"

"Hm now that I think about it…it did have the correct amount of legs. And it had a hard exoskeleton. I didn't have much of a chance to observe it since we were attempting to prevent it from overturning the raft," Raine explained.

"Uh…okay…Anyway, it looks like Rico knew about as much as we do when she recorded this."

"Standing around here speculating won't get us anywhere," Sheena said, "Let's move on."

* * *

"Well, at least these mines turned up something more than what the caves did. We just have to hope this computer will have something more than the terminal in the forest did."

Raine proceeded to accessing the large computer terminal the six hunter came upon in the second level of the mines. Having destroyed scores of not only Gillchics and Canadines, but also red Canadine-like machines called Canades and powerful bulky robots called Sinow Beats and Sinow Golds. Not surprisingly both levels were teeming with land mines, requiring the use of many Trap Visions.

"So you think Rico's government conspiracy theory holds any water?" Zelos asked no one in particular. Back on the first level they had come upon another message pack where Rico talked about a rumored secret factory and how the government controlled information. There wasn't much else to do while the FOmarl searched the computer's files.

"Whatever it is, it doesn't look like the principal or anyone else on the _Pioneer 2_ knew about this place," Sheena replied, "If they did, they would've kept everyone out of here."

"Yeah, they seems to be just as confused about this place as we are," Genis added.

"This place--! Rico's comments may have more truth behind them than we thought!" Raine gasped.

"Huh? What did you find professor?" Colette asked.

"This place wasn't just a mine. It was a genetic engineering lab!"

A collection of "what" and "huh" came from the other five.

"It's all here…the main project was named "Beta 772"…the head of the operations was…Dr. Osto Hyle! He's a leading researcher in the field of genetic!"

"Okay so they used this place for a lab," Genis said, "Why would they keep that--"

The boy and everyone else gasped at the image Raine pulled up onscreen. It looked very much like an enormous centipede with four long tentacles near its head, which was covered in an elongated skull mask.

"That's…the monster we fought in the caves!" Colette exclaimed.

"That thing…wasn't even a native animal?" Genis asked though he could see the answer in front of him.

"Well that explains why they wanted to keep this place a secret," Zelos said, "Not too many people would be happy if they knew the government was using their tax money to play Frankenstein."

"And just like his monster, it escaped," Sheena added.

"A little over a year a ago to be exact," Raine said, "The De Rol Le, or Beta 772, broke free from restraint when the scientists tried to move it to a larger tank. It killed a few geneticists and injured many before escaping down a drainpipe."

"That must've been a huge pipe," Lloyd muttered.

"Actually it was considerably smaller when it escaped," Raine corrected, "Fascinating…They indeed did engineer this creature to alter other organisms, both their genotype and phenotype. "

"Gee…notype? What?" Lloyd asked.

"Their DNA and physical appearance," Genis explained, "You didn't pay much attention in Biology, did you?"

"Well I liked it when we learned about animals, but that genetics stuff was boring." The FOnewm sighed.

"According to Dr. Osto', this creature produces two types of sap. One of them mutates animals and the other…seems to increase aggression but not physically change them," The FOmarl continued.

"The animals on the surface!" Sheena exclaimed, "That's why they were all hellbent on killing us."

"That's one mystery explained," Genis said, "But it just brings up more, like why would they want to create a monster like this?"

"According to the files it was…hmm…what?" Rained suddenly shouted.

"What did you find this time?" her brother asked.

"D-Cellular Sub-Life Forms? But I thought it was only theory…"Raine said mostly to herself.

"D-Cellular? What's that?" Colette asked, more concerned than curious.

"This goes back even to Algo. During certain points in history, strange monsters would appear on the three planets, unlike anything natural or created through genetic engineering. Some theories state that these beings must've had a cellular make-up unlike any normal creature and were dubbed 'D-Cellular Sub-Life Forms'". However since these monsters were never studied and none have ever appeared on Symphonia, it remained only a theory."

"They just popped up once in a while?" Lloyd asked.

"Not exactly. They appeared about three times with a thousand year gap between each appearance."

"One thousand years…" Sheena repeated.

Further discussion was abruptly halted by a loud crackling noise, the sound of two photon weapons clashing against each other. The six hunters hurried to the doorway that lead to the room the sounds were coming from.

A photon axe and huge broadsword met, creating the characteristic crackle. The wielder of the sword, a blue photon Flowen's Sword was a tall and heavily muscled HUmar. Appearing about thirty, he had long and a bit unruly blue hair and eyes a similar color. The armor he wore was mostly gray with dark-green on the lower portions. On his chest was a light-green circular symbol--Section ID Greenil.

The wielder of the axe was familiar to the six hunters, a pink haired girl who couldn't have been more than twelve.

"It's her! That girl from the caves!" Lloyd exclaimed.

* * *

Wooh! Government conspiracies, genetically engineered monsters, crazy robots and a cliffhanger! And we're only about halfway done. That's PSO for ya (well okay the cliffhanger was my doing but still)! Of course if you've played the game, you'll know what's going on (more or less) but hopefully there'll be enough character interactions to make it fresh. Well as always thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter. 

(Zhui hou de wen nuan ni gei de wen nuan) Ahh, it's still stuck in my head! (By the way, I can't really speak Mandarin Chinese, I'm actually of Hispanic descent.) Well that's all for now. If you'll excuse me, I have a song to practice…


	9. Black Paper

Ack! I was trying to get this up earlier to avoid delays, but obviously I couldn't do it. I'm really sorry everyone but between exams, homework, essays, a term paper, work, my sister's Sweet Sixteen party and I-CON (a convention at the university I attend), I had little time to type this out! Thank you all so much for being patient. Hopefully this chapter will be up to your expectations.

* * *

**Chapter 8: Black Paper**

Sword clashed against ax as the opponents battled, neither one losing ground. Unsure of what the do, the six hunters continued to look on at the impossible scene; a young girl holding off against a fully-grown man with a weapon she shouldn't be able to hold. They recalled how she was able to fight the HUnewearl they met in the Caves, but this was unreal.

The blue-haired HUmar, managed to put extra force in his next swing, knocking the girl back a distance. She charged at the man but was stopped in her tracks by a Gizonde bolt he fired, stunning her temporarily. Turning off the photon edges on both sides, the man struck the girl with the blunt weapon, rendering her unconscious.

"Now normally I'd call that overkill, but in this case..." Zelos said in a loud whisper.

"What do you mean?" Genis whispered angrily at the HUmar, "What if he really hurt her?"

Most likely hearing the two, the man turned to the doorway where everyone watched the skeptical.

"…A hunter team I presume," He stated matter-of-factly.

"You didn't have to be so rough! If you hurt her-" Genis growled, clenching his Scepter.

"Genis, clam down!" His sister said.

"There's no need to worry. I made sure only to use enough power to knock her out."

The statement made the Newman boy relax by a hair.

"This must seem unusual to you," the man said.

"Not as much as you may think," Sheena said.

"You see, we saw that girl before in the underground caverns" Raine continued, "She was battling a HUnewearl and ran off after she knocked the girl's ax away."

"HUnewearl…by any chance, do you know her name? Did she have pink hair?" the man asked.

"No, her hair was blue," Colette replied.

"Since you seems to know her, could you tell us who she is? Does she have any connection to _Pioneer 1_?" Raine asked.

He shook his head, "She is not from _Pioneer 1_, nor does she have any connection to them. Either way, I strongly suggest that you leave this place as soon as possible."

"Leave? Why?" Lloyd asked first.

"I suppose saying 'for your own sake' would not get you out of here any sooner," he replied, "You may not believe this, but this girl works for Black Paper."

"Wait, Black Paper? You mean that group of traders that runs some sort of black market?" Zelos asked.

"One and the same," the blue-haired HUmar responded.

"I heard they dealt in android parts and even slaves, but would they really have a young girl working for them?" Raine wondered aloud.

"That is why I said you may not believe it. I've had several run-ins with Black Paper, including that girl. I'm not sure how, but they have her completely under their control. Since she is down here, they must have some interest in this place. If they were to find you here-"

"What, they'd off us or something?" Zelos interrupted.

"If that's how you want to put it…"

"But we only saw her," Lloyd said, "It's not like she targeted us."

"He was right. Leaving would've been your best option. Too late now," A strange mocking voice said from behind the man.

Turning around, he faced an aging man in Ranger-esque green and white armor. His hair was violet in color and he had a small pair of glasses perched on a largish nose.

"Such a large hunter group. You must be the same ones Presea saw in the Caves," he continued.

"Presea?" Colette repeated.

"Black Paper. There couldn't be any other way you would know her name," the blue-haired man said, indicating the unconscious girl.

"To be more precise, Black Paper is my employer and funds my research," he replied.

"Then who are you?"

"I suppose I could tell you seeing as you lot won't make is past today. I am Rodyle, genius genetic engineer. That girl there is an example of my work."

"You mean that you created her?" Raine asked incredulously.

"No not exactly. I merely enhanced her, made her stronger and faster without changing her physical appearance. I've been researching a way to create super humans and Black Paper agreed to fund me, provided I let them use any of my successes. A major flaw however is that she can only be controlled by a device, which was all too easily destroyed by a sudden jolt of electricity."

"So you used her as a guinea pig?" Lloyd shouted at the geneticist.

"That's horrible…how could you do that to another person?" Colette added, more sadness on her voice than anger.

"It wasn't entirely against her will. She wanted to come onboard _Pioneer 2 _but couldn't for some reason or another. Black Paper agreed to get her and her sister onboard…for a price of course."

"Alicia…but you didn't do the same to her?" the blue-haired HUmar asked.

"Oh no, it's far easier to experiment on children. Alicia merely became an agent of Black Paper, hoping they'd eventually free Presea, the fool," Rodyle replied.

A faint growl was barely audible from the oldest HUmar, but other than that the hunter team said nothing, glaring at the scientist.

"Now, will any of you tell me about Dr. Osto's research?" Rodyle continued.

"Dr. Os-" Lloyd began to say.

"We are searching for the whereabouts of _Pioneer 1_, we haven't found any sort of research," Raine interrupted.

"I have reason to believe otherwise, all the more reason I need to be rid of you," Rodyle said, "Dr. Osto can't measure up to me, but there's no telling if he may have come across something by accident. I highly doubt he found a way to create D-Cellular Sub-Life Forms though."

Raine gasped mentally, avoiding the surprise to appear on her face, _Sub-Life Forms again, _she thought, _but why would anyone want to create something that may have really existed?_

"It seems everything is keeping me from that research though," the spectacled man continued, "I had sent that Alicia down here to fetch the data for me. She refused to give it to me however until I gave her a straight answer as to when Presea would be freed. She then destroyed the disk right in front of me. If that weren't enough I caught her later on trying to escape with her sister. Black Paper needs agents they know won't betray them, so even though I'm technically not a member, I still had the authority to discard her--permanently."

"YOU MONSTER!" The blue-haired man roared, raising his Flowen's Sword.

"I suppose now would be as good a time as any," Rodyle said with a sinister smile. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a remote control-like device and pressed a button. Three tall grotesque monsters lumbered into the room from the doorway behind the geneticist.

Humanoid in shape, they had no facial features, only a strange node where they would have gone. Their skin colors varied one having blue skin, another green, and the last one gray. Their long arms, which ended in huge clawed hands, dragged on the ground.

"Wha-what are those?" Lloyd exclaimed.

"Repulsed are you? I call them Exbeluas," the scientist replied, "They were early attempts at creating super humans from scratch, if you will. No matter what I did though, I couldn't engineer them to look like normal humans, so I had to settle for changing a real human. Black Paper cannot use them, but their power is still quite formidable."

The three monsters lumbered toward the hunters, each one taking a swipe at them. Their slow movements were easy to evade though. The hunters attacked two to a monster with Raine either attacking all three at once with a Ra-level Technique or healing everyone with Resta. Lloyd drew most of the gray one's attention, avoiding it's blows while delivering his own. Colette backed him up using mid range Diska slashes and the occasional Technique. Sheena's Blade Dance kept the blue one busy as Zelos' DB's Saber dealt heavy damage. Genis switched form fire to ice to lightning on the green creature as the blue-haired HUmar prevented it from attacking the boy with his huge Flowen's Sword. As the battle raged on the Exbeluas's swipes occasional connected, sending the receiver flying. Later on the creatures performed a strange attack, which caused the ground around them to shake violently and be enveloped in a violet, black and red ring. The melee fighters took heavy damage from the attack, Raine having to immediately use Resta afterward.

Despite the powerful move, the monsters proved to be no match for the hunters. One final Razonde from Raine killed all three at once.

Rodyle gritted his teeth, a fearful look in his eyes.

"They _were _failuresso I never really expected them to be too useful…" he trailed off. He then raised both his arms. A huge fiery explosion engulfed everyone, knocking them down.

"This was pleasant, but I really must be going!" He exclaimed, raising one hand to create a Ryuker.

While still lying on the ground, Genis held up his right hand, a small but brilliant point of light forming in his palm. Before the geneticist could take the Ryuker, strange white rings of life surrounded his body. He turned to see the young boy just as a large twinkling bright light appear and "lower" into his body.

"A Grants Technique? You little-GRRAAAH!" He screamed as the light flashed brilliantly once it reached his center, causing searing pain. The Ryuker light vanished as the man collapsed. He was still conscious but he clutched his chest where the light "exploded".

The blue-haired man was the first to stand, he charged at Rodyle, sword in hand.

"N-no! I beg you! Stop-!"

* * *

"Nnghhh…"

A pair of large blue eyes began to flutter open.

"Hey! She's awake!" A young boy's voice exclaimed.

"Ughhh…" the owner of the eyes, a young pink-haired girl grunted. She suddenly felt a splitting headache, holding her head while keeping her eyes mostly shut.

"Here, I'll take care of that," the same voice from before said. The young girl then felt a sort of warmth travel through her, mostly in her head. Fully refreshed, the Newman girl could open her eyes.

She was ion a large room with several machines and wall covered in steel. There were also seven people around her: three female hunters and four male hunters. The nearest one to her was a wide-eyed silver-haired FOnewm around her age, kneeling on the floor.

"Where…Where am I…?" She asked in a low voice, sitting up.

"Take it easy," A FOmarl said, "While that Resta may have healed you, you still shouldn't strain yourself."

The girl remained silent as she looked at each unfamiliar face in the room, trying to collect her thoughts.

"What happened…who are all of you?" She asked, her voice still remaining mostly calm. Confused as she was, she knew getting worked up wouldn't have gotten her anywhere.

"You don't remember anything?" A brown-haired HUmar asked.

"Remember…I…am not certain," she replied, her mind still very much fuzzy.

"It shouldn't be surprising, considering she may have been under Black Paper's control for more than a year. The effect of long-term mind control are still not know," the FOmarl said.

"Mind…control?" the girl repeated. She became silent again. Just what was the last thing she did, that she could remember? Why does it feel like there's a giant gap in her memories?

"I think…I remember having test run on me. They said that if I wanted my sister to come aboard the _Pioneer 2_ as well, I would have to take a second set of tests and…yes…that is all I can remember. Nothing else can be recalled", she offered, a calm sort of logic on her voice.

"Presea is your name, right?" A blond HUmarl asked.

"That is correct…how did you know?"

"I told them," a blue-haired HUmar answered, "My name is Regal Bryant."

"And I'm Colette," the HUmarl added. The remaining Hunters and Forces also introduced themselves to the young girl.

"Presea, could you tell us who it was that performed these tests? We may be able to explain what happened to you, but we need certain gaps filled in," Regal asked of the girl.

She nodded, standing up. Right then the top priority was knowing what happened to her, and if telling them would've helped, she needed to oblige.

"It started seven years ago, back on Symphonia. Both my parents were sent to Ragol on _Pioneer 1_. I'm not certain why, but they told my older sister Alicia and me that we had to go with my Aunt and Uncle to Motavia, and not to go to Ragol. They never told us why.

Alicia and I tried to change ship assignments, but our parents placed some sort of block, preventing us from going onto _Pioneer 2_. For the next two years Alicia tried to find a way to have it lifted. She even considered sneaking onboard the ship.

Then a year before _Pioneer 2 _would leave Symphonia, a group of people claiming to be from the government said they would allow us on the ship. First however we would have to undergo several tests…that's all I can remember."

There was a brief moment of silence before Raine asked, "Presea, who are your parents if I may ask?"

The girl nodded, "My mother Sayna Combatir was a government official on _Pioneer 1_. She was mostly likely the one who put the block on our names. My father Seige Combatir was a director for government-sponsored research. He was sent to oversee the research done on Ragol."

"Seige Combatir," Raine repeated.

"Do you…know him?" the girl asked her.

"No, that's not it…" The FOmarl responded. She didn't know him, but had seen the name before. For now, it would be best not to tell her with so much she would already have to be told. Regal walked close to Presea before he spoke,

"What I am about to tell you may be hard to take all at once…and hard to explain." Presea responded with a nod.

"The group that came to you was Black Paper, a group of merchants that run the black market as well as other criminal acts. Since your parents believed you would be going to Motavia, their intent was to sell you into slavery.

However a rouge geneticist Black Paper hired named Rodyle wanted to use you in his experiments. First tests were performed to see if you were a suitable candidate. The test tests were the beginning of the experiments, which was why you can't remember anything after that."

If any of this was shocking to the young girl, it did not show up on her face. She knew she should've been more taken aback by what she was being told, but it was almost as if she wasn't sure how to show it. Perhaps from nearly four years of being under Black Paper's control, she wasn't able to express emotions as well. Raine did say that the long-term effects of mind control were still not well known.

"What did he…do to me?" she asked.

"Rodyle was attempting to create enhanced humans, which was why Black Paper funded him. He altered your DNA and body, making you stronger. Since then Black Paper had been using you mainly to attack hunters, stealing their weapons and other items. "

"Stronger…?" Presea trailed off.

"See that ax on the ground?" Regal indicated, "You wielded that weapon before. Try and pick it up."

Slowly she walked over to the metallic handle, as the photon blade had been deactivated. It should've been too heavy for someone of her build. She may be able to lift it up, but certainly not wield it the way it should've been. If she was startled by how easily the ax came off the ground, she didn't show it. Presea swung the Victor Ax with both hands, then only one.

"I see…" the girl finally said, "How is it that you know about me? And my sister Alicia, is she on _Pioneer 2 _as well?"

Regal went silent was a short while. Lowering his head a bit he continued,

"I learned about you from Alicia."

"You know her then," Presea said with hopefulness on her voice. Her emotions were subdued for a long time, but not removed.

The blue-haired man nodded, "I was hired to investigate a kidnapping with a possible link to Black Paper, during which I encountered Alicia several times on Pioneer 2. When I managed to catch her, she cried, saying that if she were arrested then her sister would never be freed from Black Paper. When I asked her what she meant, she told me that black Paper was holding her--you--captive. The only reason she became an agent was as part of a deal to eventually free you. I normally would've been suspicious, but she seemed so sincere…I decided to let her go.

It would not be the last time I encountered Alicia either. Over several meetings she told me the whole truth about what happened to you and her. She told me that after the second run of tests, you hadn't returned and she went to the group claiming to be from the government, demanding what happened to you. At first they feigned ignorance of anyone by your name. Alicia threatened, begged and pleaded for you to be returned safely, until they offered to make her a Black Paper agent, saying they would eventually free you."

"…Then…where is she now? If I have been freed, then what about Alicia?" Presea asked.

"I'm…very sorry Presea but your sister…Alicia is dead." Sadness was on the man's voice and his head was still lowered.

The young girl's eyes widened as she said, "What…but…how?" The monotone nature of her voice was replaced with a tone of shock and grief.

Regal then told her about the events that transpired shortly before. About how he went to the mines to look into reports of Black Paper activity; how he was attacked by Presea and managed to knock her unconscious and destroy the device that kept her under control; how Lloyd and the others came upon them; how Rodyle came in and attacked them with his monsters; how he attempted to escape only to be killed in the end.

The pink-haired girl stood motionless, letting everything she was told sort itself out in her mind. All of it sounded so absurd, but she saw the proof herself: her new incredible strength. Then her sister must really be…

"My sister…Alicia is dead…but the one who did it is dead as well…"

"…Perhaps we shouldn't have told you all this at once," Regal said.

"No…I would rather have known about it all now," she assured him, though sadness was still on her voice, "I don't suppose…you would know about my mother and father? This is Ragol after all. Do you know where they are?"

Silence again. Obviously if they didn't know about her parents, they would've just said it outright.

This time it was Lloyd who spoke up, "When _Pioneer 2 _reached Ragol's orbit we all saw an explosion on the surface. When contact couldn't be made with _Pioneer 1_, the government hired hunters like us to search for the crew and passengers. So far we haven't found anyone from _Pioneer 1 _and still have no idea on what happened to them."

"That is why the six of us are here," Raine continued, "This facility was obviously constructed by people from _Pioneer 1_, so they could either be down here for we may find something about their whereabouts."

"Then for now…I am alone…" the girl said.

"You don't have any relatives or friends on _Pioneer 2_?" Colette asked her.

Presea shook her head, "As far as I remember, all my family member were going on the ships to Motavia. I am not certain about my friends."

"Oh…I'm sorry, Presea," the blond said sadly.

"You don't have to be. It's not as if it is your fault," Presea responded.

"It's best if we Ryuker back to _Pioneer 2 _and leave you in the care of social services," Raine said to the young girl.

"Social services…" Presea repeated, "I would rather not…If I may, I would like to accompany you on searching for _Pioneer 1_'s passengers."

Raine shook her head, "Ragol is a very dangerous planet, too dangerous for a young girl."

"Well with that logic then I shouldn't be here either," Genis pointed out.

"You are a licensed Force," Raine replied, "and-"

"And I'm with the rest of you. She'll be with us too," her brother continued.

"I should be able to hold my own in battle seeing as I was an 'attack dog' for Black Paper," Presea added.

"You can't really argue with that," Lloyd remarked.

"Well I suppose you could accompany us, but when we return to Pioneer 2, we'll have to convince Principal Dorr to allow you to join us. It was hard enough convincing him to let Genis investigate and he is a licensed Force."

"I shall aid in convincing the government if need be seeing as I've been investigating Black Paper," Regal stated.

"So you're not coming with us, Regal?" Lloyd asked the older HUmar.

"Actually if I may, I wish to join your team as well."

"What about Black Paper?" Sheena asked.

"After this incident they will probably lay low for quite a while. I was asked if I could investigate the disappearances before but declined. Mostly I want to make up for getting you all involved with Rodyle and Black Paper."

"That isn't something you have to feel sorry for," Anyway what do you guys say? We let both of them join?"

"Of course!" Colette said cheerily.

"I don't have a problem with it," Zelos replied.

"We're already a pretty big hunter team, and since they both really want to join, why not?" Sheena said.

"Yeah, sure, if they really want to" Genis said.

"Ultimately, it's up to the Principal. Still, more members would help in our investigation. There's no telling where we'll go once we fully explored these Mines," Raine stated.

"Then it's settled," Lloyd faced the blue-haired HUmar and pink-haired girl, "Welcome to the team!"

* * *

Wooh, that took longer than I thought it would to type up.I broke away from the main plot with this one, but it'll be back to exploring the Mines next chapter. I know it's a sci-fi and all, but I hope it didn't seem too far-fetched. I still hope you enjoyed it. Thanks always for reading! 


	10. The Crazy Program

:Walks in meekly: Um…hello there. Yeah, I know this is late, extremely late. I don't have much of an excuse for it either. I was going to post a new chapter as soon as I was finished with finals way back in late May and I even thought I'd be able to finish this story entirely over the summer. Instead I got lazy and kept putting it off. Now I have less than a month before I go back to college and I still have another four chapters to write! All I can say is that I'm very sorry. Hopefully I'll be able to get the next chapter up very shortly to make up for my neglect.

* * *

**Chapter Nine: The Crazy Program**

"Garanz. Assault machines used by the military of _Pioneer 1. _It is equipped with plated armor and has guided missiles."

"Huh…WAAAAH!"

All eight hunters made a mad dash to the door they entered through as a giant tank-like green plated robot fired several missiles. Fortunately for them, there was only a certain amount of time a missile could fly until it detonated itself, allowing them to avoid getting hit by outrunning them. Still, they remained in the corridor, hoping it wouldn't try to fire missiles _through _the door.

"That thing's huge!" Lloyd gasped, "We can't even get close to it without getting blown up."

It _is_ a machine," Genis began, "If we could use Zonde-based Techniques to immobilize it, then taking it out would be easy."

"Unlike most machines, the Garanz possesses a high resistance to electricity. Instead it is weaker to Foie-based Techniques. It can also be frozen easily," Presea stated matter-of-factly.

A moment of silence and blinking followed until the red-haired HUmar asked, "How do you know about that thing, my little Rosebud?"

"I'm…not sure," the girl admitted.

"It would not be surprising if Black Paper has known about the types of machines on _Pioneer 1_, seeing as they already knew about the research being done here. They may have had you memorize the characteristics and weaknesses of the robots down here should you have to fight them," Regal stated.

Presea nodded, "Yes, very likely."

"It's easy to freeze, huh? Just like the dragon we fought in the forests!" Lloyd exclaimed.

"Distract it and freeze it? But this time there are twice as many of us. Six people running away from missiles won't be as easy," Genis pointed out.

"With six hunters and the area of the room, there is a sixty-eight percent chance one or more may be injured," Presea stated.

"Hmm…then…we'll have four of us get that thing's attention and another two will join Genis and the Professor to run up and freeze it while it's focused on the rest of us," Lloyd thought out.

The pink-haired girl nodded, "With four hunters the percentage drops to forty-one."

The responsibility of drawing the Garanz's fire fell on Lloyd, Zelos, Regal and Presea as Sheena and Colette possessed the most powerful Techniques of any of the non-Forces. Watching the green robot from inside the corridor, the four readied their blades.

"Okay…NOW!"

The four Hunters rushed out and back into the large room.

"Hey, over here you oversized toaster oven!" Zelos taunted. As if understanding the insult, the Garanz immediately fired numerous missiles. While outrunning the missiles, the Hunters ran behind the behemoth machine, making it turn in their direction. It's back turned toward the door, Raine, Genis, Colette, and Sheena dashed out. Nearing the foe, the Garanz began turning backaround, but not before Sheena reached it first, releasing a powerful Gibarta. The other three quickly followed up, Colette using her own Gibarta and the Forces their more powerful Rabarta. Quickly the machine was encased in a thick shell of ice.

After the last of the missiles self-detonated the four ran toward the iced robot, their photon weapons easily stabbing through the ice. Once sparks could be seen coming out of it, the eight backed away just in time for the Garanz to self-destruct.

They really…wanted to keep this place…a secret to have something like that…" Lloyd panted more than said.

Casting a quick Resta to refresh himself and everyone in range, Zelos added, "I'd hate to say this but it's starting to look like the crew of _Pioneer 1 _didn't hide down here either."

"You can't say that yet, Zelos!" Colette said, fuming a bit, "We still have more to explore."

"Don't worry, my dear Colette. I'm not sayin' we should quit," the redhead replied.

"We should check out the monitor room, before we conclude anything," Raine stated, "That computer I inspected earlier only contained information on the research done here. I couldn't access Vol Opt, the AI system that controls this facility."

The large group walked into a nearby room, much smaller than the large chamber where the Garanz attacked them. With a burst of speed, the FOmarl dashed toward the center where a tall column stood.

"Marvelous! Absolutely marvelous! I never would have imagined we would find one of these monuments inside these mines! "

Lloyd, Genis, Sheena and Zelos let out noticeable sighs. Presea cocked her head in puzzlement and Regal's serious features remained unchanged. Colette walked around the monolith, not paying attention to the floor.

In an all-too familiar fashion, the blonde HUmarl fell over with a thud having tripped on a small orange pack. One could've sworn to see large sweat drops on the foreheads of her companions.

"Here, I found the third one," the hunter/scientist's voice began, "Will it fit together when all the parts are combined? 'Light, darkness, pair, exist, unlimited, rule, seal…' I can make out each word, but I still don't understand the meaning of the whole thing."

Rico's voice once again went silent with the shutting off of the light.

"Impressive," Raine said, "Without prior knowledge of Esper script, she was still able to decipher a few words. Even I can only make out a few more words than she did."

"Esper? Do you mean the Espers of Algo?" Regal asked.

"Yes," she replied, "So far we encountered three of these pillars--though Sheena and Zelos were not members of our team when we found the first. The characters on each one are undoubtedly Esper script and each has the Crest of Algo etched into them. They should become more easily visible if I do this…"

The Force placed a hand on the pillar. Instantly the characters lit up, as did the familiar crest. This time the crest's color was green.

"What purpose do these monuments serve?" Presea asked.

"That is what I want to know as well. These characters most likely have the answer…if only I could translate them entirely…"

* * *

"This last place we have to check before we report to the boss man, right?"

"If you mean the Principal, then yes."

"These mines have been fully explored. All we can do is to check the data from the Vol Opt system."

The eight hunters stood before a large transporter, its coordinates set to the monitor room. Having found not a single individual within the facility, they prepared to enter it.

"Why do these transporters have to be so big? It's just like the ones that sent us inside the Central Dome and to that underground river, and both places had something huge that we had to fight," Lloyd muttered.

"You don't think there's going to be something waiting in the control room, do you?" Genis asked, sounding a bit nervous.

"It's already getting predictable, explore one area, fight a giant monster at the end of it, explore another area, fight another monster," the red-armored HUmar added nonchalantly.

"You're saying it like it's not a big deal…" the young boy continued.

"Are you frightened, Genis?" Presea asked the young Force.

"N-no! Not at all!" he replied quickly, wanting to kick himself for stuttering, "I-if there's anything in there, I-I'll protect you!"

"Aw, ain't that sweet? The midget magician is blushing." Zelos teased.

"I-I'm not!" Genis stuttered, only turning a deeper shade of red.

After a few more exchanges, the eight entered the large transporter, instantly taken to a circular room dominated by huge monitors. Raine walked to one of the closest panels.

Several metallic pillars then rose out of the floor, suddenly releasing a powerful bolt of lightning, shocking and temporally immobilizing each of them.

"Th-there's a defense system in here as well?" Raine struggled to say as the paralysis-like affect lingered,

The monitor in front of the FOmarl turned itself on. A strange object, a sort of one-eyed robotic face appeared in it, bobbing itself up and down rapidly.

"So you think it's funny to shock people, huh?" Zelos said, the paralysis wearing off.

The "face" vanished and the pillar rose again. Zelos launched himself toward one, attacking it with his saber. Lloyd followed suit, attempting to hack the nearing one in half.

Another electric bolt struck the fighters, though not everyone succumbed to the paralysis.

"Like it or not, we've got a fight on our hands," Sheena said, among the ones not immobilized.

The "face" appeared once again, seemingly laughing at their efforts.

"You're annoying!" The HUnewearl shouted, hurling a Foie ball at the monitor the "face" appeared in, destroying it in the process. The pillars rose up once again.

"That device…" Raine said to herself, looking up at a long hanging antenna-like object in the center of the ceiling. Quickly she used her own Foie, launching three fireballs at it. The device crashed to the ground and each pillar began to spark uncontrollably.

"Just as I thought. That object must've acted as an amplifier to control the pillars. They shouldn't be able to retreat into the floor now," the FOmarl explained.

Each hunter chose a pillar, easily hacking or blasting the stationary devices. Once the last one was destroyed however, the entire room began to shake violently.

"Wh-what's going on?" Lloyd exclaimed.

"Whatever it is, that ceiling looks like it's about to come down!" Sheena shouted, looking upward.

"Everyone, stand up the walls, hurry!" Regal shouted.

Without a moments hesitation the eight within the room rushed to the sides just as the center of the ceiling came crashing down. Shielding their eyes from the dust and debris, they couldn't tell what it was right away. Moments later, they opened their eyes to the source of the destruction.

A huge red monstrosity of a machine stood in the center, vaguely resembling a cross between a crab and an octopus.

"What the hell is that?" Lloyd exclaimed.

"Unknown. I posses no knowledge of such a machine," Presea replied helpfully.

"According to the radar, this thing is the AI system Vol Opt…It wouldn't be impossible to implant the core into a robot," Raine said.

The giant robot began to move, opening hatches on it body.

"I think that's our cue to run!" Zelos exclaimed, remembering the battle against the Garanz.

It would've looked hysterical to an outsider, but right then no one was laughing as the eight teammates ran around in circles, trying to avoid being hit by missiles and trampling each other. Much like the Garanz's missiles, they eventually exploded. However their blast radius was larger, often hurting someone in the process.

The missiles stopped after a time, replaced by four non-damaging lasers that locked onto Colette, Genis, Regal and Sheena. They all continued to run around the machine, unsure as to what it was doing. The four who were targeted were suddenly glad they kept running as large pillars came down from what remained of the ceiling, attempting to crush them. Four lasers then locked onto Lloyd, Zelos, Presea and Raine.

"It seems to only attack those targeted by the lasers," Regal observed, "The rest of us should take this opportunity to attack it in the meantime."

"Meanwhile we're unwilling decoys. Grea--WOAH!" Zelos began to say, letting out a yelp as a pillar nearly drove him into the ground.

The targeted four proceeded to running like mad people while the others attacked with slicer, sword, daggers and Razonde.

The machine did not produce a third set of lasers. Instead it released an unusual green ball of light. While it moved slowly, everyone kept their distance from the sphere. Vol Opt then released another that nearly hit Presea before she sidestepped the orb. When it struck the ground (the previous one hit a monitor), earth rose up in a near flash, forming a case of rock.

"It was fortunate I avoided that," Presea said matter-of-factly.

"Vol Opt was not finished with the girl yet. Keeping its eyes focused on only her, it turned in whichever direction she moved, the front of its body glowing in a red light. Even with the other hunter hounding the machine, it continued to follow her. It paused for a brief moment, allowing Presea enough time to get away before it fired a row of powerful lasers.

"And fortunate I avoided that as well."

The monstrous machine then repeated firing missiles, moving through a random sequence of green orb firing and pillar smashing as well as more missiles. The eight dodged as best they could, barely having enough time to Resta their wounds and fatigue and strike with their own attacks.

"Just how strong is this thing? Even with all of its attacks, the eight of us should've destroyed it by now," Lloyd said, panting a bit even after a Resta.

Vol Opt had paused for a moment, something it did a few times before. Pondering while staring at the machine, Raine came up with a possible reason,

"When it's pauses like that, it's most likely repairing itself. It's hard to make out, but it seems to absorbing something from the rear unit."

"So it's just healing any damage we're doing," Sheena said, "Sure we're doing the same thing, but we can't drag this battle on forever."

"We'll have to destroy its self-repair unit before we're unable to heal ourselves," Regal said.

"Now if only we knew that sooner," Lloyd grumbled. The HUmar made a beeline toward the robot's read unit, but it was then that it chose to stop repairing itself and launch several missiles. As each of the melee fighters tired to hit the area, either it would prevent them from getting close or take shorter periods of time to repair itself before they could destroy it. It was no different from before when they were attacking it at any given chance.

When Vol Opt was preoccupied with the Hunters, Genis came up with his own idea.

"Sis, I know it'll take more out of us than our other Techs, but if we both use Grants on it's repair unit, I think we'll be able to take it out."

His sister nodded, "That's not a bad strategy. Grants has the power and speed necessary to destroy it before it can repair itself. We won't have to worry about mentally tiring ourselves if we only use Grants to destroy the unit."

Holding their arms forward, a bright twinkle of light formed between both of their hands. Two similar twinkles of light appeared above Vol Opt's rear unit, lowering into it and becoming brighter. Once they reached the inside of the unit, both lights flashed intensely.

Vol Opt then turned around to face the source of the twin light Techniques. Just as it was about to open its missile hatches, the melee fighters attacked its repair unit, causing the machine to focus its attention back on them. Two more double Grants later and the enormous robot lost its ability to repair itself.

Without its repair unit, it took less time then they imagined finishing off Vol Opt. After several attacks, the machine finally stopped moving and instead began to shake violently. Everyone hurried against the wall, crouching to avoid the ensuing explosion. Once they were able to stand back up, all that remained of the monster machine was a pile of red scrap metal.

They all let out sighs of relief; glad they no longer had to run from missiles, orbs, pillars and lasers. With the constant use of Resta even the Hunters needed to use Pineapple Gels to relieve mental fatigue in addition to Lemon Gels to heal their injuries.

"It would not be surprising if the military had built this facility. It would certainly explain why the AI system was implanted in that machine." Regal stated.

"The military…" Lloyd repeated in a low voice.

"Well good luck checking that theory," Zelos said, looking around at shattered monitor and smashed keyboards, "Or getting any info out of this place."

"Indeed. Unfortunately Vol Opt prevented any way of avoiding destroying the monitor room. It appear this expedition--" Raine began to say.

"Is another bust," Zelos finished crudely.

"But this time we didn't find anywhere else the people of _Pioneer 1 _could've gone," Colette said, looking over at Lloyd, Genis, Raine and Presea, "And it looked like we would actually find something here…"

Noticing her look of concern Lloyd Said, "Don't worry about it. After we give our report, they'll send us somewhere else. It's a big planet."

"Uh, before we call it quits, you guys might want to take a look at this," Sheena spoke up, pointing toward a broken door. Distracted by Vol Opt, no one had noticed it before. Beyond it was a smaller room with only one feature, a transporter.

Examining the transporter, Raine said, "The coordinates it is set to is not familiar--neither to the Central Dome or even one of the entrance transporters."

"It's just like the one we found in the last level of the caves," Sheena added.

"Which probably means there's going to be some underground place with two or three level full of monsters or robots," Lloyd sighed.

"Better a dangerous situation you are familiar with than one you are not," Regal said, "Besides, there is no telling where it truly leads to.

"You're still getting bored, even after fighting that giant robot?" Genis asked incredulously.

"I'm not saying I'm bored, just that it's not as exciting as it use to be," Lloyd replied in an annoyed tone.

"With you that's the same thing."

"Hey!"

"That's quite enough you two!" Raine said sternly, avoiding shouting.

The group of eight assembled underneath the transporter, a bit of a tight squeeze as they discovered. Where the transporter led to was not what either of them expected. It did not even look like part of the mines. It was a small chamber, a cave of earth illuminated by artificial lighting most likely installed by the people of _Pioneer 1_.

Even more surprising was what was at one end of the chamber: a large rectangular opening, a door of sorts. Above it, three symbols glowed, one red, one blue and one green.

"They're the crests of Algo! Just like the ones on the monuments!" Colette gasped, "They even in the same colors."

"Then…this place has to be connected to those monuments!" Genis exclaimed.

'Red, blue and green…" Regal trailed off.

"If I am not mistaken, this orange device is a message from Rico Dorr," Presea spoke up, indicating a small pack near the transporter.

"I can now say that our ancestors have indeed came to this planet long before us," the pre-recorded voice began, "Ruins buried in the ground containing Esper writings and the Crest of Algo. This is the evidence. The government was about to secretly conduct an excavation.

I wonder though…why did the Espers come here? What became of them? Why only leave those pillars on the surface and build these ruins? Is this the reason the government buried so deep underground?"

"That's a longer message than usual," Sheena said.

"I can see why she would have much to say about this place. It seems that the areas we explored before all lead to these ruins…could this really be the reason why the mines were constructed? What about the genetic engineering lad…" Raine contemplated.

"It is not the only message pack," Presea said, "There is one near it as well."

"Well then turn it. The more I hear my Hunny Rico's voice, the better!" Zelos said before Raine could reply.

"You haven't even met her and you're calling her 'your Hunny'? Light, I can't believe you!" Sheena said while rolling her eyes.

"Aw. Don't be like that, Sheena-Hunny. Though you are cute when you get Jealous like that," Zelos replied with a smirk.

"I am NOT jealous!" the HUnewearl shouted angrily.

"You're also cute when you get mad."

"ZELOS!"

That enough out of BOTH of you!" Raine shouted. Almost instantly the two fell silent.

Clearing her throat Raine continued, "Presea, if you would, please turn on the second pack."

The girl nodded, apparently not startled by the previous scene.

"The government was decoding the characters as well. Here is their analysis. I'll try to fill in the gaps with my own data.

'Light, darkness….

A pair, no…

Exist, no exist….

Unlimited, seal….

MUUT DITTS POUMN…'?

What is the last line? An incantation? Seal, seal…what is sealed? Where? Is it about this door? Was it sealed with the words, MUUT DITTS POUMN? Maybe each word in the incantation means something? I found three monuments…Are they the keys to open the door?"

The room fell silent as the light form the pack faded.

"MUUT, DITTS, POUMN…What could that mean?" Colette thought out loud, the first to break the silence.

Raine continued to mouth the words to herself as she looked around the small chamber before turning her attention to the three glowing crests above the door.

"MUUT, DITTS, POUMN…MUUT DITTS POUMN…Of course!"

"Did you figure something out?" Her brother asked her.

"Note at the letters that start each word, 'MUUT DITTS POUMN'; 'M, D, P'. Now look at the color of those crests; red, blue and green," Raine replied.

"What? Red, blue and green…Wait! Motavia, Dezoris and Palma!" The young Newman exclaimed.

"Precisely. The first letters in the words are also the same letters that start Motavia, Dezoris and Palma, the planets of our ancestral solar system," Raine said, "The colors are further proof to that."

"Motavia, a planet of red sand, Dezoris, a planet blue with ice and snow, and Palma, our original home world and a planet green with forests and plains," Genis continued, "But what's with the words MUUT DITTS POUMN? I thought Esper Script was just a different writing system, not a different language."

"Rico mentioned that they might have been an incantation. Perhaps the three monuments were what sealed the door, the words acting as a magic incantation. When touched, each one light up and the seal was unlocked," Raine explained.

That seems to be very likely, though that does not explain why the ruins would be sealed to begin with," Regal stated.

"Well when some place is sealed, it usually means whoever sealed it doesn't want anyone to get it…. Or something to get out…" Genis trailed off.

"At this time though, this is merely speculation," Raine said as she walked closer to the open door. When she got within two arm lengths away form the structure she abruptly halted, letting out a low gasp.

"Sis? What's wrong?" The younger Force asked.

"Professor?" Colette and Lloyd added. The three walked closer to her when she didn't respond. They too suddenly stopped once they got close enough to the wall. The other four members of the group walked up to them only to mimic their exact actions. They could all feel what the FOmarl first felt: a sudden feeling a dread. A feeling that told them to stay out of there, to run away and not return.

"We…should return to _Pioneer 2. _The Principal should known about what we have found before we decide on any other actions," Raine said.

"No one argued with her. They didn't question the bizarre sensations upon getting closer to the ruins. They felt relieved to be going back as Raine opened a Ryuker, sending the eight back to _Pioneer 2_.

* * *

Well I hope that chapter made up for having to make you wait so long for it. The next one will not go straight to the Ruins, but actually happen on Pioneer 2 and focus more on the characters. As I said before, I'll hopefully be able to finish it and get it up sometime next week. There will be no more slacking off from this writer: Hears snickering in the background:

Err; anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter!


	11. That Uneasy Feeling

I wanted to get this chapter up before I started school but sadly though that did not come to pass. Then I wanted to get this up on the 25th of September since it was the one-year anniversary of this story, but that didn't happen either :sigh:. I hate breaking promises, even if it's too myself…Ah well…

* * *

**Chapter 10: That Uneasy Feeling**

_Why do I still feel so…strange…when I think about that place?_ Lloyd thought to himself as he walked to no where in particular. Nearly a week had passed since they returned from the mines and they were still waiting for their next task.

The principal and other officials and scientists were shocked to hear about the Ruins. Other hunters exploring the mines told them of the strange robots but only their team had found the warp leading to the Ruins. While it wasn't likely that the crew of _Pioneer 1_ was hiding somewhere in the Ruins, they were clearly excavating them. It could still hold clues as to their whereabouts.

But the very thought of returning to that place unnerved him to say the least. It wasn't just him; they all froze up when they approached the entrance. Even the Professor, who should've been ecstatic about being up close to the Ruins, froze up.

_It doesn't make any sense that all of us would stop in front of that door…what could be in there?_

The Hunter shook his head.

_We haven't even gone inside yet, it's stupid to be afraid of it. The Professor and Regal said the military helped in constructing the mines and they might have investigated the Ruins. Maybe there's something in there that'll tell us what happened to all of them._

_Still…why does it feel like something is telling me to forget about that place and stay out of it?_

Walking past a small park he noticed a possibly familiar figure out of the corner of his eye. Taking a better look, he did indeed recognize who it was. A girl of small stature with long blond hair, wearing normal clothing rather her silver colored armor, was sitting on a swing. With her normally bright eyes staring at the ground in a somber way, she clearly was being troubled by something.

"Colette?" the boy asked after walking over to her.

"Ah--Lloyd!" She jolted up with a start.

"What are you doing here?" he continued.

"Oh I was…getting some fresh air." She replied hesitantly.

"We're in a spaceship, and that doesn't explain why you looked so sad."

"I-I wasn't sad, heh. I was just thinking."

"Okay," he said, not exactly convinced, "Then what were you thinking about?"

"Oh, heh heh, nothing important really…"

"Colette" Lloyd said a bit sternly, "I know you're hiding something. You always make that fake giggle when you do."

The blonde lowered her head. In a softer tone Lloyd said,

"I can tell something is bothering you. If there's anything I can do to help, please tell me."

Colette lifted her head up. Letting out a sigh she said,

"It's about…that place we found deep underground, the ruins. I don't know why but something is telling me…to stay away from there. It's like…there's something in there, something dangerous and scary…Oh, look at me. I'm acting like a little kid."

"Don't feel bad about that," her friend said, "I felt the same way when we went close to the door. We all did."

"But I still feel scared just thinking about it. That place could have something that will tell us what happened to your father and everyone else, but a part of me wants to forget we ever found it. I feel terrible."

"You dork; you shouldn't be the one feeling terrible. If anything, I should be."

"What do you mean? You're still feeling scared, too?" Colette blinked in slight awe.

"Of course, is it that surprising?" he asked.

"Uh…not really but…you don't show it at all, Lloyd."

"I was just thinking about it before I found you here. I felt like running away too, even though the truth behind what happened to my dad could be down there somewhere."

Colette said nothing for a while, taking in what the boy told her. Finally she asked,

"But if we do have to go back there, you won't run, will you?"

"Are you?"

The HUmarl shook her head, "I'm still scared, but not so much now. Besides, you and everyone else will be there too, if we're sent there."

Standing up she continued, "Thank you Lloyd. I feel much better now."

"Don't mention it. Talking to you made me feel better, too."

What lurked in the ruins? What was it that filled them with a sense of dread and made them not want to go near it? There was only one way to find out, and staying away wasn't it. There was nothing to be worried about, not with her fighting by his side.

* * *

"Miss Sage?" 

"Yes, Presea?" the Forces asked, not looking up from her heavy-looking book.

It has taken much convincing and assurance on all their parts, but the government finally allowed the young Presea to join the hunter team, though technically only to accompany them. She was after all not a licensed Hunter. They mostly told the truth about the girl, save for leaving out the part about her having been altered by Black Paper. Raine had even managed to adopt the girl in a way. With no relatives aboard the _Pioneer 2 _she would've ended up on foster care had the professor not insisted that Presea stay with her and an embarrassed, though happy Genis for the time being. The pink haired Newman had been living with the Sages for the past three days.

"Do not take this the wrong way," Presea continued, "I am still very grateful for what you and everyone else did for me…however…"

The FOmarl put down her book, "What's the matter?"

"I am not certain why, but I can't seem to get this thought out of my mind. When you said my father's name in the Mines after I was released from Black Paper's control, I asked if you knew him and replied no. I am not accusing you of hiding anything but I must ask again: are you sure you know nothing about my parents? Perhaps you saw their names in a database?"

Raine remained silent for a short while, looking seriously at the young girl. The Force closed her eyes and gave a slight nod, as if deciding something in thought.

"In truth, I was holding back information from you."

"Raine?" Genis asked. Though initially passing by, the boy had walked into the room upon hearing what his sister said.

"You must understand though, I felt there was already too much stress for you at the time. I'm not one who enjoys lying, so now is as good a time as any," Raine continued.

The pink haired Newman nodded, "Go on."

"I had seen your father, Seige Combatir's name in the computer database in the Mines. It seems that he was one of the overseers of the project that created the monster in the Caves we told you about, De Rol Le."

Presea stayed silent for a few moments before replying, "That…was not expected, however I do not see why that would have to be kept a secret from me. He did not create the creature by himself."

"If that were the only reason…I'm very sorry, Presea, but your father is dead as well."

The young girl's jaw opened slightly at what the Force has just said.

"Daddy…" her voice cracked, "How…do you know?"

"It was by the monster they created, when it escaped. According to the files I found he was inspecting the progress of the scientists that day. When it broke free from its restraint, he was among the ones killed."

An expression resembling disbelief crossed Presea's face. Lowering her head she said, "Daddy…Alicia…and I know nothing about Mommy…Am I truly alone?"

"Oh, Presea…" Raine trailed off.

"But you're not alone!"

The two females turned their attention to Genis.

"Not while you're with us," the Newman continued.

They continued to look on.

"I know we only met a little while ago, but we're all working together to find the people of _Pioneer 1_. Somewhere out there we'll find them, or what happened to them."

The boy wanted to say more, but he wasn't sure what else without repeating himself. It seemed to be enough however as a small smile appeared on her face.

"You are right, Genis. I should've realized that sooner. Thank you for saying that."

The young FOnewm felt himself blush as he replied, "Y-you don't have to thanks me."

Raine chuckled softly at the sight of her flustered younger brother. Strange as the circumstances were, this was still his first crush. Even a boy of his intelligence would be a bit clueless as to what to do and say.

Despite what Presea has said, Raine wondered if something else might have brought it on. After all, not too long ago they were told to investigate the underground ruins as soon as possible.

The Ruins….even approaching the entrance filled everyone with a sense of dread, even herself. It didn't make any sense. While none of them knew what would be waiting inside, that was still no reason to cower in front of it like children afraid of the dark.

Raine mentally shook her head. That was no way for her to think. She was a Force, a hunter. They all were—well Presea wasn't legally one, but she was a teammate nonetheless. With a new and unexplored area right in front of them, they should be the last ones to cower in fear. They had to find out what was in there and why the people of _Pioneer 1 _were interested in it.

And possibly, why was it that they all felt a sense of dread in front of it.

* * *

_That must be why they call it the "Chaotic Bar", _Sheena thought to herself as she left the shops where they sold hunter tools and weapons. Since returning from the Mines, more hunters were traveling down to the planet surface, meaning more needed to buy weapons, armor and other essentials. That wasn't due to the Ruins though; at the time no one except the eight of them were allowed in. 

_I was hoping to at least get a pair of Bloody Art daggers before we went down there…_Sheena trailed off in her thoughts. Whatever it was that she felt in the Ruins, maybe some stronger weapons would make her feel less uneasy.

_Now that sounds childish… "Stronger weapons will make it easier". I'm a HUnewearl! I all of people should know that! _She mentally scolded herself.

It wasn't as if hunters should never be afraid. Only someone completely stupid or insane would not feel fear. The problem was that she was allowing the fear to cloud her judgment. Worst of all, it was an unfounded fear.

At the same time though, she knew there had to be something unusual about that door, those Ruins. Why else would everyone freeze up like they did?

As she continued to think, walking through the streets of the city, Sheena heard two voices arguing with each other.

"…do I have to tell you? You haven't even graduated yet! You can't come along."

"But you won't even tell me what this place is!"

The first voice she recognized immediately, nearly jolting up in surprise. Though she was a bit of a distance from them, she could still hear them clearly. Indeed one of them was Zelos Wilder. In front of him was a young girl with coral pink hair, perhaps around fifteen years of age. She was wearing a blue and grey two piece outfit, familiar to any Hunter as the uniform of students of the Hunter Academy.

"It doesn't matter. If that old man Dorr won't even let us tell others what this next place is, there's no way you'd be allowed to come," Zelos said.

"But when you came back, it looked like something was bothering you…" the girl said quietly, sounding concerned.

"Seles?" he asked.

"I mean, if the government thinks this place is serious enough to keep a secret, they can't depend on you. You'll probably do something to embarrass the family name too," the girl he called Seles retracted.

"Seeing as I'll be with seven other people, I doubt they'll buy that," the redhead sighed.

"Just let me come with you tomorrow! I'm sure the guards at the transporter won't say anything if there are eight of you and me!"

"Stop it!" he snapped. His voiced hadn't risen by much, was still taken aback by it.

"Brother…" she said meekly. With a more serious tone she said, "Then tell me the truth. Why won't you le me go. I know it's not just because I'm not a Hunter yet or that the government won't let me."

Zelos turned his head away from the girl and began, "That place…is dangerous. We haven't been inside it yet but…" He looked back at Seles and said more sternly, "Either way, I'm not letting you come, so stop asking!"

Seles stood silent at Zelos' uncharacteristic behavior, a look that read of uncertainty on her face. Eventually she turned away from the redhead and said, "Fine, you'll probably embarrass us even if I did come."

She then ran away from her brother. He held out his arm to stop her, but decided against following her.

Zelos turned himself around to face Sheena, who was still standing a few yards away. The HUnewearl gave a slight start, suddenly realizing she had been standing there and watching the two the whole time.

"Hey Sheena Hunny! What are you doing all the way over there?" He called out, sounding more like his usual self. He then proceeded to walking close to her.

"You can admire my sexiness a lot better up close," he continued once he was close enough to girl.

"I wasn't admiring anything, idiot!" she scoffed, "I was just passing through and saw that you and your sister were discussing something. I didn't want to interrupt."

"And just standing there watching us was the best way to do that?" he asked.

"Uh, well, it looked like it was serious," Sheena offered, knowing it wasn't much of an excuse.

"She asks all the time if she can tag along, it's nothing new," Zelos said nonchalantly.

"She seemed really concerned though," she said

"You really think so, huh?" he replied quietly.

"What?"

Ah, nothing. Forget it."

Sheen said nothing for several moments, not sure of how to respond. Where were his usual wise crack and flirting? He wasn't acting like his usual self at all, even with what he said to her before.

"It's that place, isn't it?" she asked without realizing it.

"Huh?"

"Uh, n-nothing. I have to get ready for tomorrow, bye!"

The Newman walked away in a hurry. She was not about to tell someone that she was still uneasy about the Ruins.

It didn't matter if he was feeling the same way as well.

* * *

Cold. That was the first thing that struck each of the eight. Temperature-wise it was colder than any of the previous areas. Not quite enough to see their breathes, but noticeable all the same. 

There was something else as well. The very air seemed to be saturated with this. It was a feeling, an emotion that filled the air. It was as if the feeling of dread changed, becoming an inhuman coldness. Everyone shrugged off the feelings as best they could.

The first room of the underground Ruins was cube in shape and relatively small. There were no windows to speak of, but strange colored glass shapes provided light. There were three automatic sliding doors, one which led back to the transporter and the other two to parts deeper within the Ruins.

"So which do we take left or right?" Zelos spoke for everyone.

"Perhaps we should ask our mutual friend, Rico," Regal said, standing next to a small message pack.

"Red Ring Rico, always one step ahead of us." Genis said. Regal proceeded to activating the orange device.

"Why am I here, with monster lurking everywhere? Did the army even stand a chance against them?"

* * *

Yeah, I really think this chapter isn't up to my standards. I was having such bad writer's block on this part and I suddenly starting getting ideas for a new fanfic (Haibane Renmei, an anime series I have a feeling most of you are unfamiliar with). I wanted to get to the Ruins. But I didn't want them to just jump in right away. I tried to avoid making this too uninteresting or repetitive, but I don't think I succeeded very well. Regal had virtually no role in this, but I was afraid that it would be too much of the same thing, so I didn't write any part concerning him. Well, maybe I'm being my own worst critic, but I still think this could've been much better. 

In any case, we're coming down to the last four chapters (I meant five chapters last time, not four). I've been looking forward to these chapters for quite some time, so hopefully these won't take as long to be updated as my last two. I have to admit I was a little disheartened when I received only two reviews for last chapter, but I won't let that stop me (and it's nice to know I have two reader-reviewers I can depend on). Though I hope those of you who didn't review last time (or haven't reviewed at all) will do so this time. At the very least you could review the last one…

Erm anyway, thanks for reading.


	12. Ruins of the Espers

Drat! Not again:Sigh: I keep wanting to update this story sooner, but this time I couldn't even keep to my usual one chapter per month habit. I know I shouldn't be beating myself up about it, what with both being a university student and having a part-time job, but I still wish I hadn't started posting my stories on in the middle of my senior year of high school! That and there were plenty of times I could've been typing a chapter or writing one down in my notebook.

I must be sounding like a broken record, but I do hope you forgive me, dear readers. Ah well, you probably would rather get to the chapter than hear my lame apologizes, hm?

* * *

**Chapter 11: Ruins of the Espers**

For a time no one spoke a word. While Rico once said she wasn't a hero, she never sounded that scared before. By herself she traversed the same areas of Ragol they had been, yet in such a place she too was feeling dread. They were certainly not the only ones affected by the strange Ruins.

It was Lloyd that first snapped out of the shock. These Ruins were hiding something; they had to be. If nothing else, they could hold the truth behind the disappearances. He wasn't about to let anything scare him away from that.

"I think we should take this door first," the boy Hunter said, "it's closest to the message pack and probably the one Rico took first."

Everyone in the room turned their stunned gazes to the twin blade wielder.

"She sounded scared, but it didn't sound like she turned tail and ran. She might even still be down here somewhere. We all have to keep going if we want to know what really happened."

Colette was the first to stop starting blankly after taking in her friend's words. With a look of determination she turned to the others and said, "Lloyd's right. We've come this far, haven't we?"

Hearing both young Hunters, the realization came upon the remaining six. There was still a great mystery that needed to be solved. Thirty Thousand people have gone missing without as much as a hair of evidence as to how or why. These were their fellow Symphonians after all. Worse still, whatever happened to them could happen again.

"What are we waiting for? These Ruins aren't going to explore themselves!" Zelos exclaimed first, running ahead.

"Hey, wait up!" Lloyd called out, following the older HUmar.

"Lloyd?" Colette called before running after him.

"Are you crazy? Who knows what's down here!" Sheena shouted, starting her pursuit.

"And yet you ran in after them…"Genis trailed off.

"There are too many unknown factors to determine accurate danger rate ," Presea stated.

"Then what say we follow in after them in case they get hurt?" Raine suggested.

"Yes, let's," Regal agreed, "Even if Rico was scared, I doubt she was exaggerating all that much."

The Hunters in front didn't run for long as they took in the strange surroundings. Through the door was a narrow hallway leading to a room bigger than the first. It was still dimly lit and possessed few windows.

Stepping further into the chamber, a dark mist suddenly and without warning formed. The mist appeared to clump up into smaller darker cloud-like objects. Almost as soon as it appeared, the mist vanished, replaced by twenty or more bizarre beings.

They weren't large at all, perhaps two-and-a-half-feet in length. They resembled short fat eels or finless fish, mostly red in color but also having three stripes of gray running along its body from head to tail.

That is, if they could even be called heads. The creatures did not have any visible eyes, only three sharp tooth-like appendages which seemingly extended from their stripes of gray. These formed a pincer and could perhaps have been considered mouths. Further more, they didn't seem entirely organic. Their gray stripes appeared metallic and their red skin displayed an unnatural sheen.

"Wh-what are they?" Genis exclaimed. A quick look at his Radar device answered it for him, "Claws?"

The aptly named beings hovered silently, though slowly toward the hunters. When one hovered too close to Lloyd, the HUmar struck it with his right sword, slicing the creature in half. As soon as the halves separated, both dissolved back into that strange black mist before falling to the ground. Most of it dissolved away except for a strange puddle of dark purple liquid.

"What just happened to it?" Lloyd gasped. Despite the surprise, he reacted in time to slay another one.

"Well, at least they're easy to kill," Zelos said, dispatching another Claw.

With Genis and Raine Techniques, Regal's sword and Colette's slicer, all twenty Claws were defeated in a quick manor by killing several at once. Neither one of them relaxed when the last once dissolved, knowing full well it would be a foolish thing to do in an unknown area.

Sure enough, more black mist materialized, much more than previously. It condensed into larger forms than the Claws. Once they reached a certain size the blobs of mist faded, revealing-or possibly forming-several tall, bipedal monsters.

Strangely, they bore a likeness to the Shark creatures from the Caves, including possessing scythe-like arms. Instead of reptilian scales, their skin had the same strange sheen to it as the red portions of the Claws, save that it was black. Portions of their bodies, including their scythes, glowed with an eerie luminescent green color. Most disturbing of all, the beings did not posses any sort of facial features, only protruding hooked snout-like appendages where their heads would've been.

"Dimenions!" Raine gasped, checking her wrist for their name.

Despite lacking mouths, each monster raised their bladed arms upward, emitting a sound that seemed to combine an eerie groan and a hiss. They then charged at their query, surprisingly faster than either the sharks or the Boomas from the Forests. The Dimenions proved harder to hit with blades, as they were able to block them using their own arms. The Forces had an easier time, launching Fire and lightening Techniques while the melee fighters kept the monsters at bay. Colette's slicer served a similar function as the "projectile blades" cut through multiple Dimenions without being blocked.

Much like the Claws, the monsters' bodies also dissolved upon hitting the ground, leaving behind the same dark puddles. Once they were all dead, a quick Resta was cast over the party.

"What _are _these things? What kind of creature disappears when it dies?" Lloyd spoke for everyone else.

No one was given the chance to reply as more monsters materialized into the room, this time a mix of Claws and Dimenions. Zelos and Lloyd were about to rush as the nearest Dimenions when two black blurs leaped toward them, giving them seconds to react and block with their shields.

The blurs were monsters as well, eerily humanoid in shape. They're skin was similar to the Dimenions, possessing that unnatural sheen. While they had heads, the only facial features visible were cold glowing patches where their eyes would've been. There were similar glowing patches of green all over their bodies as well. Their right arms consisted entirely of long blades, glowing in a pale blue light and their left arms, large misshapen claws.

Neither of the two swordsman had the luxury to look up the creatures' names: Delsabers.

Surprised by the creature's strength, Lloyd parried its arm-blade and attempted to strike it. The Delsaber raised its left arm, blocking the attack.

"A shield?!" The HUmar exclaimed.

"I never imagined a monster would be giving me this much trouble," Zelos said, grunting while pushing away his opponent's blade with his sword.

Lloyd wielded both Musashi expertly, blocking his foe's blows. However the monster matched each of his sword strikes. The young HUmar was beginning to feel tired. While he knew he could keep it up for longer, eventually one of them would succumb to fatigue, and there was no telling how much endurance a Delsaber had. He had to finish it.

Lloyd jumped back a fair distance from his opponent, clutching both green swords tightly. His brow furrowed as slowly a yellowish glow began to emit from both blades. As this happened, the Delsaber rushed at the red-armored Hunter, it's right arm swinging. As it was about to strike Lloyd, the twin swordsman dodged to the right. He quickly swung his right Musashi at the Delsaber's side, but it turned fast and the blade hit its arm-shield. Much to the monster's dismay, the blade slashed through its left arm, severing most of it.

The HUmar breathed a quick sigh of relief. It had worked. His Musashi had a special ability called Berserk, allowing him to deliver an attack at more than twice the usual power. It was however at the expanse of his health as he felt a sharp pain after using it. Furthermore, such special elements took time to work and missed easily. He knew it had more to do with luck than skill.

Lloyd locked his left sword with the Delsaber's blade leaving the monster no way to block his right sword, which he plunged into its chest. The monster fell backwards, it's body dissolving before it hit the ground, leaving only the same strange blood-like fluid.

Whether it was due to his speed or his foe's skill, Zelos was not having as "easy" a time. The Delsaber gave him little space to move. They matched each other move for move, but the monster showed no sign of slowing down.

With the Delsaber's next strike, Zelos blocked it with his shield as he held his DB's Saber behind him. A yellowish glow emitted from the saber.

Before he could use it, the monster used its arm-shield to shove him and swung its arm-blade. He dodge its swing but let out a groan of pain as it sliced into his left arm. Had he not moved the way he did though, it would have cut his arm clean off. The creature's photon-like blade cut in a way that little blood flowed, but it would've hindered the HUmar.

Before the redhead made his next decision, the distinct sound of a Rabarta came from behind the Delsaber. Ice quickly encased the monster, causing it to fall over once it was completely covered. Without a moment's hesitation, the Hunter stabbed through the ice and into the creature's head. Both body and ice dissolved away.

"Why thank you, my Voluptuous Hunny," Zelos said, after a quick Resta to heal his arm.

"Don't call me that after I just helped you!" Sheena said, annoyed.

"Aw, I didn't think you'd get upset over me thanking you," he responded. Sheena rolled her eyes.

Once every last monster was dead they waited for enough time to elapse to convince them that no more waves would arrive.

"These monsters are no joke," Sheena said.

"Indeed, and there is something…unnatural about them," Presea added.

Regal nodded, "Considering how similar Ragolian life is to both Symphonian and Plaman life, it's hard to imagine something this different evolving on the same planet.

"It's not just that," Raine began, "Their appearance, they're behavior, and certainly the way they die…It's as if--"

"They're not really alive!" Lloyd interrupted, "The Delsabers were pretty smart, but the Claws and Dimenions acted more like robots."

What the young HUmar said gave Genis an idea, "Hey Sis, remember what you said about Dr. Osto's work back in the Mines? Something about research on D-Cellular Sub-Life forms?"

"I was thinking along the same line, " the FOmarl replied.

"Then those monsters…are sub-life forms? They're not really alive, or not completely?" Colette asked the professor.

"That I can't say with any certainty. D-Cellular Sub Life-forms only appeared in the Algo system and there is little data on them. Most everything else is pure speculation."

Raine looked down at the floor, and then took out a small vial. She gathered up some of the dark purple substance into it.

"This fluid may be able to tell us a few things once we return to the _Pioneer 2_."

Further travel into the depths of the ruins revealed two more monster types and an "upgrade" to a pervious one. The latter was called the La Dimenion, a larger Dimenion with purple glowing patches rather than green. One former creatures was called a Dark Belra which possessed yellow-gold skin that looked strangely like polished wood studded with green glowing patches. Like many of the other inhabitant of the ruins, the Dark Belras had no mouth, but two circles of luminescent green where it's eyes would have been. It's very long arms floated several inches from its shoulders. To attack it either swiped its arms at a nearby fighter or lifted them at a 90 and fired them at a distant target. Dark Belras were mercifully uncommon.

Far more common were the ethereal Chaos Sorcerers. These humanoid creatures seemed to wear robes that looked stiff. Its head was triangular in shape, lacking a mouth and only having red glowing patches where it's eyes would've been. Similar patches lined the edges of its torso and shoulders. It's thin arms held a staff-like object apparently made of pure photons. Two large diamond-shaped objects, made of the same "material" as the Sorcerer floated by its shoulders much in the same way Mags would. Expectedly it attacked using the Techniques Rafoie and Gibarata and could even heal itself with Resta.

Little changed in the scenery as the group pressed on. Occasionally strange halls, some of which had visibly metallic floors, broke up the eerie environment. Of the few windows they found, most only faced solid rock. That is until one room in particular.

The room--or what remained of it--had part of it completely missing. At the southwestern corner of the room, the floor and walls gave way to rock and earth. Toward the back of the room was an enormous hole.

"What happened to this place?" Colette wondered aloud.

"Looks like something tore out this entire part of the room," Sheena said.

Walking further into the room, Lloyd approached the large hole. He quickened his pace when he saw a familiar orange object not far from the rim.

"Hey, it looks Rico has a few things to say about this place," he said, turning the device on.

"What is this big hole? It looks like…remnants of some kind of energy explosion…Energy? Was the Central Dome destroyed by this?!"

"'Energy explosion'?" Lloyd repeated. He walked closer to the opening and looked up. A long hollow shaft stretched upward, "The Central Dome is above here?"

"Ms. Dorr is correct," Regal said, checking his wrist.

"Then…is this where that explosion we all saw came from?" Genis exclaimed.

"…An explosion we all saw from space coming from the Central Dome! That makes sense!" Lloyd said with equal exclaim.

"Then, this could really be it! The answer to the disappearances and everything!" Colette added

"We can't be certain of that from here but…it's perhaps the only lead we found in this entire area," Raine said, a hint of awe in her voice.

"I…this is still inexplicable," Presea said, "A the energy necssary to destroy this room and create a path to the surface should have caused some damage to the Central Dome. From what you said though, the Dome was perfectly intact."

"Well, the inside of the Dome was completely hallowed out, but that explosion was big enough to be seen from orbit. It should've done something to the outside, but there wasn't a scratch," Genis said.

"Even now I can't conceive of any energy that could do such a thing," Raine stated, "Regardless, we should try to reach the origin of the energy as soon as possible. There is no telling how deep this hole is or how far down these Ruins extend and unfortunately we can't be certain we can reach it from the Ruins."

"There's really nothing else we can do," Sheena responded, "Even if we can't reach the bottom of the hole, Pioneer 1's military was excavating this place for some reason."

"Then we'll just do what we were doing before," Genis said.

"Well, we _could_ jump down there from here," Zelos said before peering over the edge of the chasm, "but, I doubt that's the safest plan."

* * *

"Those characters, the Esper Script, were found here and there. I think I have enough samples to decipher the meaning of the message on the monument.  
'Light makes darkness, a pair exists, but it doesn't always exist. Reincarnation goes forever. The rule is here. It should be sealed MUUT DITTS POUMN'…Does it make sense? I wish I had enough time to study these unknown characters…"

The light of the message pack vanished as the group looked away from the device and back at each other. The largish room they stood in possessed a large crystalline object covered in writing at the far back of it. Raine of course was already examining the object as the message pack played.

"When…or if…we find Rico, I will have to thank her. She deciphered some characters that were giving me trouble." The Professor said.

"What does any of that mean anyway?" Lloyd asked, scratching his head.

"It sound more like an incantation than anything specific, but if I could understand what these characters mean…" she responded before turning back to the object and going over the etched words.

"Knowing how long this could take, we might as well settle here for the night," Sheena said, "Though I can only tell its night because of our watches."

"Since we're the only ones crazy enough to actually sleep down here," Zelos said.

"We can't just Ryuker back home for the night! Who knows what we'd miss down here!" She said sternly.

"I know ,I know. I wasn't being serious." Zelos protested. Then a thought came to his mind that caused him to smirk in a familiar way, "Although now that I think about it, I _do _get to share a room with you and my other Hunnies."

"D-don't make it sound like you share a tent with us or something!" Sheena snapped, turning slightly red.

"Is that an invite?"

The next sound he made was a loud "ow!" as the HUnewearl ran up and struck the man on the head.

"I suppose I should start on diner then, Regal said, already use to the two Hunter's antics.

As the others began to set up camp, Raine let out a gasp,

"Unbelievable! It makes sense, but…"

"What's unbelievable, Professor?" Colette asked.

"You found something already, Sis?" Genis asked.

The FOmarl turned her attention towards the others, surprise still clear in her eyes.

"I haven't uncovered all that much, but no matter how I read this part, I can only reach the same conclusion…

This place…these aren't Ruins. This an enormous ship, a Palman World Ship!"

* * *

And with this done only three more chapters remain in this fic! Personally, I'm really excited to have made it to this stretch. So much to reveal, so much to keep until Episode II, so much to describe, all within the following and final three chapters…I know I said this before, but since the semester is nearly over and I'll have a full month off from the university, Ill try my best to get all three up before I go back in late January. Once I finish my finals, I'll try to get the next chapter up. By then my anticipation to finish this should get the one after that shortly before or after New Years, then the final one sometime after that. Heh, I'm already psyching myself up for it…but I'll have to save that for after the finals. :P

In any case, I hope you enjoyed this chapter for the time being. Once again, thank you so much for reading, and for putting up with my lateness.


	13. Ragol's Dark Secret

:Sigh: Why do I bother making grandiose claims? "I'm going to try and complete this story before the Spring Semester starts", huh? Well the month is over and this story is _still _not finished. So much for the thrill of writing the last chapters driving me to complete it.

Ah well, at least this chapter is finally up, right? Oh and just so you know; if you haven't played PSO, by the time you've finished this chapter, your eyes will be rolling up at the title. If you have played PSO, they'll probably be rolling right now. XD

* * *

**Chapter 12: Ragol's Dark Secret**

_"I want to run away! But I have no place to return to…Perhaps no one will ever find this message and listen to it. Ever…_Pioneer 2_ will not come down when they discover that this planet is dangerous. Will somebody from _Pioneer 2 _still come to save us? Who knows? Regardless, I leave this message here. This is evidence of my existence. _

-"Red Ring" Rico Dorr, "Ruins" 2.

"_I miss my father. I wasn't a very good daughter…was I? Is my father OK now?_

-"Red Ring" Rico Dorr, "Ruins" 3.

Time seemingly froze as the pitch dark room gave way to an endless expanse of shifting colors and light. Monster of every sort, including two new enemies--the dangerous centaur-like creatures called Chaos Bringers and the water skater-like monsters dubbed Dark Gunners--froze accordingly, caught in the process of attacking and being attacked.

High above the battlefield an immense humanoid figure, its body shaped like it was wearing a robe, materialized. Extending its crossed arms, the being launched several rays of light skyward. They returned in a deadly rain that shredded any and all monsters it touched.

In an instant both the being and the multicolored background vanished, returning the room to its near pitch-black state.

"Thanks a lot Regal! Fighting that many monsters in the dark could've turned ugly," Lloyd said, turning toward where he believed he saw Regal standing before it became dark again.

"Thank Diva," the man's voice replied from the direction Lloyd was facing. Diva was his Mag, a green and white robot that looked like a miniature space probe, "I only told it to use the Pilla Photon Blast.

Before the boy could get a chance to, a loud "ZELOS!" boomed in the darkness, clearly the voice of Sheena.

"Sheena? Zelos?" Lloyd called out, alarmed. Quickly scanning the room, he spotted the faint glowing red of a back-up light switch. Before he could reach over to the object, the lights came back on, seeing Presea standing next to it with her hand on the top of the small pillar.

"_There _you are!" A furious Sheena shouted, seeing the redheaded Hunter in the process of tiptoeing away. Upon hearing the Newman, he began running.

"Get back here you perverted idiot!" She yelled, running in pursuit of the HUmar.

"I didn't touch you! Maybe it was a Claw or something!" Zelos exclaimed unconvincingly.

"Oh I'll bet it was a Claw!" Upon the word "Claw" the HUnewearl threw her Blade Dance dagger (switched off). Despite the distance, the weapon struck the man's head with a resounding _thwack _in the back of his head. The blow didn't knock him down, but the pain would likely not subside for a while.

"Why'd you have to turn the lights on so fast, Bud?" Zelos whined at Lloyd.

"It was Presea who turned it on…" the boy replied. The girl in question looked on, puzzled as Genis laughed. The older team members sighed and the ever-concerned Colette asked if the pink armored HUmar was all right.

Raine eventually reminded everyone that it was their third day in the "Ruins" and there was no telling how much further they would all have to travel. With some, not entirely jesting complaints from Zelos, the large party moved on into the next room. A typical transporter lied at the end of it.

"It's easy to see why they called this a 'World Ship'. Even the Pioneer ships could only hold one city each," Sheena commented, "We spent three days exploring two levels of this place and there's still one more to go. We haven't even seen much of the actual parts of the ship where people would've lived."

"The Pioneer ships' main purpose is transportation. They can be constructed relatively quickly and in large numbers. Though each has a maximum capacity of thirty-thousand passengers, it can reach most destinations within the galaxy in one-to-three years," Presea stated as if reading from a textbook. "In contrast, the Palman World Ships were designed to keep a large population of people for centuries as they were searching for suitable planets. The _Symphonia_ that our ancestors traveled on held roughly four-hundred million people."

"Keep in mind that we are not exploring the entire ship, only where the _Pioneer 1_ military and Rico traveled through. I suspect these passageways were used for maintenance," Raine added.

"Still, we've come this far and all that we've found out doesn't add up," Genis remarked. He turned toward his sister and continued, "All the writings you found say this place used to be one of the World Ships that left Palma almost two thousand years ago. It malfunctioned and crashed on Motavia, then was repaired around one thousand years later. It was then sent into space without a crew or passengers to what the Espers thought would be a remote region, which just happened to be Ragol. That doesn't explain why the people of _Pioneer 1 _vanished, what caused that explosion we saw, or much of anything else."

"Then there's what Rico said," Colette said, a touch of unease in her voice, "about this ship being a casket and a sleeping monster…"

Raine shook her head, "That is still something I can't fully decipher. There seems to be _something _sealed in this ship, but as to what why I can't say."

"What about all these monsters? Maybe the Espers sealed them all in here and sent this ship into space," Lloyd suggested.

"That would be unlikely," Regal stated, "It would be more effective to kill these monsters rather than rounding them up and sealing them. This ship however could be responsible for the monsters somehow."

"Either way, all we found is a strange coincidence that a ship from our home world landed on the same planet we found to colonize," Genis sighed.

"Now I'm no conspiracy nut, but all this just seems to convenient," Zelos said, shaking his head.

"What do you mean?" Lloyd asked.

"Think about it. We just _happen _to find a planet where our Motavian relatives unintentionally sent a giant ship with a sealed something onboard? The government just _happens_ to explore the Caves and dug the Mines with those three monolith things and found this very ship?"

"So you're saying that the government didn't discover this ship by accident? They were actually looking for it?" Sheena asked incredulously.

"Bingo!"

"Normally I would say that's ludicrous," Raine began to say, looking around before setting her eyes on the transporter, "but considering everything we've seen…the monoliths in the Forest and Caves…"

"The Mines they dug at the end of the caves with another monolith…" Genis picked up where his sister left off.

"…Which ended here, unlocking a long buried ship from the home of our ancestors." Regal finished.

"The probability of each action being mere coincidence: 10.78 . Conclusion: this ship was more than likely deliberately sought out," Presea stated.

"Well, that does make more sense than this being one big coincidence," Sheena said.

"Now see, I'm not such an idiot, am I Hunny?" Zelos asked the HUnewearl with a goofy grin.

"I wouldn't say that," she replied, rolling her eyes.

Lloyd shook his head, "This still doesn't add up. _Pioneer 1_ comes here already knowing there's a giant ship underground, they find it and try to find whatever is in here, then disappear when we saw that explosion…?" The HUmar's eyes widened as a thought came to him. "Wait! Could whatever was sealed down here cause that explosion? Some kind of weapon or something?"

"…It certainly is a possibility. However since I still can't decipher what is sealed, it'll remain a possibility," Raine responded.

"Then there's only one way to find out," Colette said before looking over at the transporter."

"Right," Lloyd agreed, "Okay everyone, there's still one more level to go!

* * *

"Ugh! We didn't somehow get swallowed by some sort of giant, did we?" 

Zelos was not the only cringing at the surroundings of the third level of the ship. Unlike the metallic walls, floors and ceilings of the second level, the walls were of a reddish-purple color. Disturbingly, they seemed to be composed of a fleshy substance, some areas of which emitted a strange dark purple mist. Not only did a similar material comprise the ceiling, it sank downward then back up at a steady rate. It very much looked like it was breathing. Only the floor of the hallway was metallic.

"Is this hall…alive?" Lloyd asked in disbelief.

"It's disgusting…" Colette said under her breath.

"This…can't be part of the ship," Raine said revolted, though not as clearly as some of the others, "not originally. I haven't the slightest notion what this could be though."

"Whatever it is, let's just keep moving. Maybe the rest of this place isn't like this hall," Genis said, not doing a good a job as Raine in hiding his revulsion.

While other rooms on the third level displayed similar walls and ceilings, many were large, making the hunter team feel less uncomfortable walking through them. The higher amount of monsters was a small price to pay for not having to travel through too many narrow hallways.

When they were about halfway to their destination, they stopped to allow Raine to examine another large crystal engraved with characters. Upon the FOmarl's request, they agreed to stay in the room for the rest of the day. She was certain she could decipher more of the script and discover what exactly had been sealed within the ship. No one was opposed to the idea and welcomed the brief rest.

Two hours passed and she was still mulling over the characters. Genis walked over to Raine sand said, "Hey sis, dinner's ready. Though I don't think too many of us have much of an appetite in this place."

"Not right now," the Force replied, not looking up from the holographic screen, "This crystal contains a great deal more information on the background of this ship. I know I can unlock _exactly _what is sealed here."

"Alright, alright," The FOnewm sighed. He could tell from her tone of voice that a rabid Winged Dragon wouldn't make her move from that spot.

_This word begins with an "F", that much is certain, _Raine thought, _The rest however is difficult. These following characters suggest either an "or" or an "al" sound. Which could it be?_

All that stood between her and the seal-ee's identity was this word. The rest of the text told it's story and how it came to be sealed, but not much about _what _it was.

"Farz…Forz…No…Folz…Hm…" Raine tried sounding the different variations out. Perhaps one of them would sound familiar.

" 'Force' is one way to derive it, but there's more to it than that. For…far…fal…falz…"

The FOmarl's eyes widened. She looked over the word again. Yes, it did translate to "Falz". The word before it made her heart sink a little: "Dark".

She looked over the rest of the text, first a quick scan, and then a more thorough read. It only more confirmed her suspicions, making her blood run cold.

"This is worse than I could ever imagine! Far worse!"

The Force was loud enough to be heard by her companions who looked over at her.

"Professor?" Lloyd asked.

"What's worse? Did you find out what's sealed here?" Colette asked her.

"Much more than that," she replied. She walked close to the others before she elaborated. "This may seem outlandish, but it does verify our and Rico's worst fears.

"Then there _is _a monster in here." Lloyd said, his features becoming serious.

The Force nodded, "And one of the worst threats in the history of the Algo System…There is a Dark Falz sealed here."

Looks of shock and bewilderment crossed everyone's face in one way, shape or form. Many a gasp escaped their mouths at the same time.

"But…that's impossible!" Genis exclaimed.

"Yeah, wasn't Dark Falz destroyed back on Algo eight hundred years ago?" Lloyd added.

Raine shook her head, "According to records, three Dark Falzes were destroyed by the group led by Chaz Ashley in AW 2284."

"THREE Dark Falzes?" Lloyd exclaimed.

"But isn't Dark Falz the god of destruction? How could there be more of them?" Colette asked in disbelief.

"It is a common misconception, but the Dark Falz itself isn't the god. It is merely an incarnation of the true god of destruction; the Profound Darkness," Raine explained.

"Who thought of that name?" Zelos immediately responded

"The story only came to us recently through communications with Motavia," Raine continued, "Much of it is probably folklore though. The Profound Darkness is allegedly the antithesis of the Great Light, the being who, according to legend, created Algo. The two were once one great spiritual life form, but it somehow split and both entities fought each other for eons.

Finally, the Profound Darkness was weakened enough to be trapped in…what I suppose could be described as a pocket of parallel space, separate from the universe."

"You mean another dimension?" Lloyd interrupted.

"I'd prefer to avoid the use of the word "dimension" to describe it since dimensions are directions of space, not universes, but yes. In either case, after the dark god was trapped, the Great Light created a star and three planets to act as a seal on the portal; the Algo Solar System.

It remained imprisoned until AW 342, during the reign of King Lassic. He somehow partially opened the portal to where the god was trapped. Though too small for it to escape, it was able to take control of Lassic and release its first incarnation, a Dark Falz. Queen Alis killed the Dark Falz before she ascended the throne so the Profound Darkness remained trapped. However, the hole to it's prison could never be fully repaired and after approximately one thousand years it weakened enough to allow another Dark Falz through which would attempt to free it's master."

"Every thousand years…just like the D-cellular monsters!" Sheena exclaimed.

The FOmarl nodded, "Though there has been no official confirmation, it is believed that Dark Falzes and the Profound Darkness can create D-cellular sub-life forms. Since I had no proof the creatures in here were D-cells, I made no mention of their connection to the Profound Darkness."

"No need to get us worried over nothing," Zelos muttered.

Ignoring the HUmar's remark, she continued, " The dark god made its second attempt in AW 1284, apparently causing the destruction of our home world, Palma before it's incarnation was destroyed again. With Palma gone, the seal was in a critical state. One thousand years later it was able to send three--or as it seems now, four--Dark Falzes to try and free it. Since the opening was so large, the Protectors led by Chaz Ashley were able to kill the Profound Darkness once and for all."

"And the story should've ended there, but it doesn't, right?" Genis followed up.

"This is partially hypothetical, but according to the texts I read, the Dark Falz that is sealed in here kept itself hidden until AW 2376. Most of the Protectors had since died, and no one else was able to destroy it. Instead, the Espers managed to seal it within a World Ship that crashed on Motavia--this very ship. I postulate that it was created shortly before its master was destroyed. Knowing it could not stand against the Protectors, it waited until it felt no one would be able to stop it. "

"Even though its was created from the Profound Darkness, it can survive it's master's death and act on it own," Regal surmised.

"Precisely what I though," Raine replied.

"Alright, so now we know why this ship was hidden and why this place is teeming with these monsters. That Dark Falz might even be the reason why we were all unnerved about this place before," Sheena summarized.

"And if _Pioneer 1 _woke that thing up, it might've cause that explosion…" Genis said, lowering both his voice and his head.

"Hold on though," Lloyd said, "If that thing is free, wouldn't it be rampaging around Ragol, or whatever it does?"

"A Dark Falz has no body of its own," the FOmarl began to explain, "It must posses a host body, usually a human, first. If it was freed, I imagine it would have found a host by now. I can't begin to imagine what a Dark Falz would do without instruction from its master, but I have a feeling we would be able to tell it was freed."

"But…why were they looking for this place anyway?" Colette asked, "Did they even know there was a Dark Falz in here?"

"That is hard to say. Rico was only able to decipher part of the message on the three pillars before using the government's data. They may not have known what was really sealed in here." What she said didn't sound convincing to her though.

"So _Pioneer 1 _didn't free it when they were down here," Lloyd said.

Raine didn't reply immediately, thinking over the situation. Finally she said, "There is still one thing bothering me about all this. If the government of Pioneer 1 believed this was only a Palman World Ship, then why did they keep a secret from the general public? Further more, why keep it a secret from the main government and _Pioneer 2_? They could have contacted us well before they vanished."

"Oh that's right. I almost forgot they built the Mines and explored this ship in secret," Lloyd realized.

"So did I," Colette added.

"It slipped my mind, too," Sheena said.

"I see. If they did not know this ship was a casket, they would have at least told the government back on Symphonia. Discovering a World Ship from our old home world would be a monumental discovery," Regal stated.

"But if they knew an eight hundred-year-old demon was locked up in here and they told the public, they'd panic," Genis said, "Even if they kept that part a secret, overly-curious _Pioneer 1_ hunters might try to sneak into the ship."

Raine nodded. "Exactly. One way or another, they knew about the Dark Falz on this ship."

"But why did they keep it a secret from _Pioneer 2_'s or the main government?" Colette wondered.

"My best guess is that they wanted to keep this Dark Falz to themselves," Zelos said, "I wouldn't be too surprised if they wanted to study or even try and control the damn thing."

"That's crazy! How could they think they can control something like that?" Lloyd exclaimed.

"But that just makes this whole ordeal more complicated," Genis indicated, "Did they free that thing or didn't they? Did it cause the disappearances and the explosion? If it did, where is it now? If it didn't, then what the heck caused them?"

"There's still only one way to find out, isn't there?" Lloyd said, "We already know a burst of energy came from this ship. We just have to keep going and find out if the answer to everything is down here. If it isn't, we'll cross that bridge when we get there."

"Simple solutions are usually the best," Colette said with a smile.

"Even when they come from a simpleton?" Genis asked sarcastically.

He next felt a thick, heavy book hit him on the head.

* * *

Unfortunately, life is seldom that simple, as the hunters were to find out. The following day several message packs from Rico confirmed that she too figured out that a Dark Falz was sealed within the ship. Though not explaining why, she felt that the demon was either already free or would soon break free itself. As they advanced, Rico sounded increasingly frightened in her messages. At the same time, the odd feelings of fear and dread from before were slowly returning. 

Yet by early their fifth day within the ship, they had arrived in an enormous and foreboding room. It lied at the end of a long hallway and a larger amount of monster attacked the hunters than in any before. Raine confirmed that a room beyond it was the origin of the energy blast that may have been the explosion. Rico's last message confirmed that the Dark Falz was also beyond the room.

The eight were gathered in front of the imposing doors on the north end of the room, having healed any injuries and used Orange and Pineapple Gels to prevent early mental fatigue. Lloyd turned to the others and said,

"This is it guys. Both the cause of the disappearances and the Dark Falz could be…_are _in the room behind this door." He let the words "could be: trail off, saying the last part with assurance. It wasn't a matter of "could be" to him; the answer was indeed beyond the door.

"There's no telling what will happen to us in there. Anyone feel like turning back?"

"If you're going, Lloyd, then I am, too!" Colette said determinedly, "I want to find out what happed to the people of _Pioneer 1 _and put everyone who lost someone at ease. "

"There's no question about our going back or not," Raine said.

"Our mother is still missing. We have to go in, Dark Falz or no Dark Falz," Genis continued.

"I don't have anyone from _Pioneer 1 _and I didn't know anyone personally who did before…Sheena began to say, "But I've seen so many people around _Pioneer 2 _crying and worrying about the people of _Pioneer 1_. I felt bad about being someone who wasn't directly affected. That's why I asked to join a hunter team, even though I had to wait for the first batch to return. We've come this far; I'm not about to stop."

"I'm no going back until we find the truth behind all this," Zelos said with surprising seriousness. Almost as quickly though, the HUmar smirked and continued, "Besides, what would my Hunnies say if they knew I turned tail just 'cause of some demon?"

"I…already know of my father's fate, but not that of my mother's," Presea said, a small but noticeable heaviness to her voice, "I too cannot turn back with the cause of all this beyond this room."

"Regardless of whether that monster is free or not, I am not turning back either," Regal stated, "Too many lives are missing and too many may meet the same fate. After all, I promised to aid you in your search."

Lloyd smiled, "I thought you'd all say that."

Despite the grimness of their situation and the ever-present atmosphere of dread, they were still determined to go in. Oh they probably had their doubts and fears--he knew he did--but they were not stopping. Rico felt the same, or so she voiced in her last message.

With a 'let's go" the hunters followed the red armored HUmar into the room. Perhaps not surprisingly, it wasn't so much a room as it was an enormous transporter. Gathered beneath the machine, the team of eight slowly vanished to an unknown destination.

* * *

I know, I know, I really need to think up of better chapter titles. :P Anyway, before I end this, there's a few things I need to explain. 

First off, much of the ideas and back story to the Dark Falz, Profound Darkness, etc. mostly come from Phantasy Star IV. As I stated in the beginning, I changed the story to make it directly link to the early Phantasy Star series. That's why there is a mention of the Profound Darkness here even though it's mention was left out of PSO. Some of them though, such as the "Ruins" being the ship that crashed on Motavia and the PSO are theories by one Mike Rippplinger of Camineet (dot) net an excellent Phantasy Star fansite. Yeah, I'm not terribly original, but his theories sound the most credible out of any I've come across.

In any case, this means that there are two chapters left! However since I'm back in school, it may take longer than I'd like. However as your reading this, chances are I'll be hard at work writing the next one down on paper. Believe me when I say I will get this one up as soon as possible. I really have wanted to write it for so long and I'm anxious to get it done! It's still early, so my workload isn't that heavy yet. I can't say exactly when I'll get it done, but I'll make sure it's before the end of February.

Oh and for once, there won't be an opening author's note next time. Just right to the story. ;) Thanks again for reading, and please, PLEASE review! I got exactly ONE review last time (of which I am extremely grateful! ). With me this close to finishing, it's more than a little disheartening. :(


	14. Cry for IDOLA the Holy

**Chapter 13: Cry for IDOLA the Holy**

Soft green grass stretched in all directions, only stopping at the foot of a ring of hills. Small flowers of orange, pink, and yellow dotted the vast carpet, broken by the occasional rock. Only the sky extended further, a light azure hue with moving white clouds. The only sound to be heard was the chirping of birds, though where they came from could not be pinpointed. If not for the enormous black obelisk in the center of the enclosed valley, it would've been the very picture of serenity.

"Of course, this is the _perfect _place for the incarnation of destruction to be sealed in," Zelos remarked sarcastically, the first to break the silence upon entering the area. Though still gaping at the scene, the other agreed with the pink-armored humor. The Espers must've had an odd sense of humor.

"This…can't be inside the ship, can it?" Colette asked incredulously, "Did the transporter take us to some other part of Ragol?"

"I would tell you but…my radar isn't working at all," Sheena replied, simultaneously attempting to get said function of her wrist device to work.

"That's weird, mine's on the blink, too," Genis said, mimicking the HUnewearl.

"This might sound farfetched, but they may not be working because we are no longer on Ragol…or the universe for that matter," Raine offered.

"Huh?…Oh, you mean just like how the Profound Darkness was sealed, a mini parallel universe?" Genis asked.

His sister nodded, "This is probably much smaller than where the dark god was sealed, but it would be the most effective way to prevent it from escaping."

"So then it wasn't woken up yet, if this place still looks like this," Colette said hopefully.

"We cannot be sure. Perhaps it's merely dormant," Regal stated, "It was sealed for 800 years. I imagine it wouldn't have much energy."

Lloyd took a quick look around before saying, "This is suppose to be where that energy surge came from, right? It sure doesn't look like it."

The HUmar's focus turned to the large obelisk in the center of the garden. He eyed the object up and down, finding himself walking towards it. He had no real reason, nor was it as if something was guiding him to the monument. He just had to get closer to it, plain and simple.

"Lloyd?" Colette asked, seeing hum advance towards the obelisk. When he didn't reply, she began to follow the HUmar. Shortly, the others wordlessly approached the obelisk as well, drawn to it, yet not feeling as if they were being drawn to it.

Once the brown-haired Hunter planted both feet next to the monument, the beautiful garden melted away, starting at the base of the obelisk and spreading outward in a circular fashion. This immediately snapped all of them from the semi-trance as they gasped at the rapidly changing scenery. The blue sky gave way to one of gray--not with clouds but literally colored gray. As the grass "melted", it revealed--or perhaps formed--a grotesque pattern of gray-colored faces. Though looking as if they were painted on the rocky ground, each had darkened in white circles for eyes and even wider mouths which seemed to moan silently. Similar horror-stricken expression crossed the faces of each of the hunters

"W-what the hell?" Lloyd exclaimed

"You took the words right out of my mouth, Bud!" Zelos similarly shouted.

Before anyone else could utter a remark, something else appeared, or rather emerged from the face-covered ground. Numbering in a few hundred they at first seemed mechanical, being diamond in shape and possessing several rotating metallic blades. Upon closer examination though, their bodies appeared to be biological, though of the same biology as the D-Cellular monsters. The beings could not be identified with the hunters' wrist devices not working correctly.

Immediately, several of the nameless beings flew at the hunters. Lloyd, Sheena, Zelos, Presea and Regal met the creatures head on, dispatching them while being mindful of their sharp blades. Even though Sheena's daggers put her at very close range, she was still able to strike at them repeatedly while dodging the spinning blades. All the while the melee fighters formed a sort of circle around where the Force siblings and Colette stood. The former two released continuous Rafoie and Razonde techniques, killing multiple beings at once while the latter's Diska cut through them in its trademark zigzag pattern. Despite the amount of monsters they took out, more seemed to keep appearing.

"There's no end to these things! I don't know who long we can keep this up!" Genis exclaimed, ending his statement with a Rafoie.

"For every one we kill three more take its place! There has to be some way to stop them!" Sheena said before narrowly side-stepping an approaching bladed being.

Just as she was about to strike back at it, every bladed creature that was still alive sunk into the ground just as suddenly as they appeared. No one was given so much as a moment before the ground began to shake violently.

"What in Light's names?" Lloyd shouted.

"The obelisk! Something is happening to it!" Colette exclaimed.

The tall monument seemed to have been the epicenter as it shook most of all. Black smoke billowed skyward as the shaking increased. Without warning the walls of the obelisk disintegrated and the black smoke coalesced, taking on a gigantic form. Where barely a minute ago was a giant monument stood the most terrifying monster any of the hunters had ever seen before.

As tall as the obelisk was, over 50 feet or so, the vaguely humanoid monstrosity was mostly black in colorwith some areas of glowing red and yellow patches. Its long arms ended not in hands, but what resembled giant pincers that didn't close. Its smallish head wasn't at the top of its body; instead there was a rigid fin of sorts. This gave it the appearance that it was hunched over. Like many a D-Cell creature, its eye were two glowing red patches. Rather than standing the monster rode on a reptilian three headed red and silver-colored beast with multiple centipede-like legs.

Both the creature and its three-headed mount released a vicious, unnatural bellow.

"T-that's it, isn't it?" Genis said in a shaking tone.

"Dark…Falz…" Presea said hesitantly.

"That thing is a skyscraper! Can we really kill it?!" Zelos exclaimed.

Lloyd only stared intensely at the giant demon. Logic would say that there was no immediate proof that it killed everyone from _Pioneer 1_. Logic would say that rushing ahead at it without a plan would have been suicide. Logic did not know how to kill it.

But Lloyd wasn't listening to logic then.

"Graaaah!" He roared, charging at the centuries-old monster.

"Lloyd!" Colette gasped

"What are you doing? It's insane to rush ahead at something like that!" Genis shouted.

"It's crazy alright, but so is just standing around here!" Zelos exclaimed, a similar feeling of recklessness coming over him. He then ran headlong at Dark Falz. As he caught up to Lloyd, one of the heads lowered to the ground, opening its wide jaws and revealing a long tube-shaped tongue. The appendage pulsed and the tip opened, releasing several of the bladed floating beings from before.

At that point the others joined the two males, rushing toward the monster and it's newly emerged minions. Lloyd took out the bladed beings with ease before he got close enough to the nearest head. As he was about to being attacking the left head, the middle one "spat" out more of the smaller creatures, surrounding the red-armored HUmar.

A flying "blade" of light then zigzagged through half of the creatures that surrounded Lloyd. A Rafoie took out the rest. He looked turned to see Colette and Raine stopping a moment to release both attacks.

"Thanks you two and you gave me an idea," he said loud enough for all of them to head, "Everyone who can hit a lot of targets are once focus on getting rid of those flying things. The rest of us concentrate on taking out the head and at least stop it from spitting out more."

Not needing to give specifics as to who did what, Regal, Presea, and Sheena joined Lloyd and Zelos on attacking the heads as Genis, Raine, and Colette attacking the spinning bladed creatures with Rafoie, Razonde and Diska slashes. With few interruptions, the melee fighters slashed, hacked and tore into the left head's neck. Though its hide proved to be harder than it looked, upon several tries they were able to pierce its skin, causing it to roar in discomfort. From there the twin swords, saber, broadsword, axe and daggers didn't take long to cut deep into the neck, causing the head to go limp.

The actual Dark Falz then saw it fit to begin attacking the hunters directly. Moving around the area, it raised its right arm. A wave of Rafoie explosions suddenly ignited around it, engulfing all eight battlers. The searing flames burned more intensely than the Forest Dragon's fire breath or the Chaos Sorcerer's Rafoie.

"I guess that thing decided to take the kid gloves off," Zelos said with a grunt of pain, "Or at least one of them."

As the demon shuffled around and the hunters continued their plan of attack, Dark Falz directly assailed the group in two other ways: It would use multiple Rabartas, not as powerful or as great a range as Rafoie, but often freezing the ones it touched in place. It would also launch multiple beams of light into the air which rained back down. Since it only affected a small radius around the monster, the attack was easy to avoid though this didn't make it hurt any less. Despite the demon's constant attacks, the second head was soon incapacitated. The Dark Falz attacked more relentlessly in response.

With a gurgling moan, the final head fell limp and the Dark Falz stopped altogether. The actual monster stared down at the hunters and let out an annoyed-sounding roar. It lifted its head back up, letting out another, louder cry. The large fin on its back spread out, revealing two rigid wing-like appendages of multicolored light. Its black skin took on a more reddish hue as well. It flew up from it's now dead mount, the three-headed monster's body vanishing in a strange cloud of dark mist. Its strange crane-claw-like legs kept a large portion of its mount's flesh, making it look like the abdomen of an insect.

"And the other glove just came off!" Zelos exclaimed.

"How are we suppose to hit from down here?" Lloyd shouted.

"It is not out of range of our Techniques. Unless it was to fly lower to the ground, it's the only way for us to keep fighting it." Regal said, mentally chastising himself for not having trained more in the use of firearms.

Though occasionally Colette's slicer was able to able to strike the demon flying overhead, she along with Sheena, Regal, and Zelos mainly used Rafoie on the creature. Genis and Raine switched to more powerful Grants Techniques in an effort to deal greater damage. Lloyd and Presea had to settle for the simple Foie, the latter because she had yet to learn Rafoie and the former since he had trouble with high-level Techniques. When Dark Falz wasn't using its fire, ice and beam attacks, it would slam its lower body into the ground, causing such a strong quake that it would be able to attack the hunters while they recovered the shock.

As the battle raged on, Lloyd carefully observed Dark Falz's movements. His Foie was considerably weak and he was using mental energy that could've been put to better use in healing his injuries and fatigue. He needed to attack Dark Falz with something more effective.

The monster let out a quick but distressful roar, slightly faltering a bit before it raised itself back up. One of the Force's Grants Techniques and a Rafoie hit one of its wings. If both wings were to be hit at once…

"Hey everyone, I think there's a way to make it fall out of the sky and let the rest of us hit it with our weapons!" Lloyd called out, "Use Techs directly on its wings. At the very least it will fall far enough for us to get in a few good hits."

"That doesn't sounds like a bad idea," Zelos said, "I already went through five Pineapple Gels just using Rafoie over and over."

"Getting the timing right will be difficult," Regal pointed out, "That monster won't exactly allow us to attack all at once. If we were to follow up with consecutive Techniques, it may prevent it from disrupting us."

Having agreed to use the tactic, the hunters spread out, avoiding the monster's attacks or protecting themselves. The Sage siblings then began the assault with twin Grants, one on each wing. A loud cry came from the demon's mouth as it faltered even further out of the sky. Before it could recover from the attack, two Rafoie Techniques, cast by Sheena and Colette, erupted directly on its wings, making it fall further. Four simultaneous Rafoies completely caught Dark Falz off guard. The blast was strong enough to "turn off" its wings, causing the monster to drop out of the sky with a loud crash.

Not wasting a moment, the melee fighter set upon the creature's abdomen as its flailing arms prevented them from reaching its torso or head. Much like the flesh of its three-head mount, Dark Falz' skin proved more resilient than it looked. Regal's Flowen Sword and Presea's Victor Axe had an easier time, relying more on the wielders' strength than the weapon's photon blades.

After several minutes the demon had enough of being slashed and blasted by the much smaller hunters. Its multi-colored wings flashed back on as it lifted its right arm up. Multiple Rafoies exploded in a ring around it, catching everyone off-guard. This gave the monster enough time to fly back up.

As Colette picked herself up, her twin Marutah Mags began to bounce excitedly while chiming in their characteristics "meeps".

"Sammy? Lucy? What is it? Is there something wrong?" she asked them.

The robotic creatures continued. The HUmarl recalled seeing the others' Mags behave like hers were once in a while. Usually right before…

"Are you trying to tell me that you can use a Photon Blast?"

"Meep!" They chorused, bobbing in a way that was reminiscent of nodding heads.

"Um…how did Sheena, Regal, and Zelos do it…?" Colette quickly contemplated. This was the first time her Mag would use a Photon Blast and the last thing she needed was to waste or botch it.

She nodded to herself once she remembered how to do it. Without further hesitation the blonde Hunter ran closer to the demon while the others fought with Techniques. Once she felt she was close enough, Colette held out her right arm and pointed it at Dark Falz.

"Sammy, Lucy, Estlla!"

"Meeee…." The Mags chanted as the familiar Algoian crest appeared below the HUmarl's feet. The already altered landscape transformed into a shifting background of colors. Like any other monster, Dark Falz was frozen in place. Not even it was immune to this little understood Mag power.

Above Colette's head appeared an enormous being, a shining eye-less dolphin-like creature of blue, teal, red and fuchsia. It leaped up in a somersault, bubbles and splashing water somehow accompanying it despite the lack of the liquid. It then "jumped through" another Algoian crest before charging towards the enormous demon. The being hit the monster head on, somehow going right through the monster.

As is the way with Photon Blasts, the background and Estlla vanished as quickly as they appeared. Unfrozen, the demon unleashed a cry of pain unlike anything the hunter heard before; a bestial, yet unnatural noise. It again fell to the ground, but that time on it's front, it's wings gone and "folded up" and its arms limp.

Colette let herself fall down in bewilderment from the power of her Mag's attack. Silence permeated the area as they all stared at the monster's motionless form. They knew better than to declare a premature victory.

Their precaution proved wise, but what transpired next was something none of them would've predicted. The "moaning" faces that dotted the ground appeared to have been swallowed up until all were gone. The ground just as suddenly began to glow in a white light. At first it slowly grew brighter, and then flashed with amazing brilliance.

Lloyd shielded his eyes but the intense brightness prevented him from seeing anything for several moments. Eventually he was able to take him arm away from his face.

The HUmar let out a gasp at what was all around them. He first saw that they were all high above the ground, somehow gathered together rather than dispersed. What held them up was a wide ring made of light. Both Esper script and modern Symphonian writing were etched within the ring's circumference. Other complex patterns crisscrossed the ring. Above the strange platform was a multi-pointed star made of the same "substance" as the ring. The very air teemed with light that appeared to rain "up" rather than down, passing through them harmlessly.

What truly caused the boy to gasp though was what floated in the wide gap in the center of the ring. The enormous being, though smaller than the previous monstrosity, strangely resembled the Dimenions that stalked the buried ship. It's metallic-blue skin lined with round patches of yellow and green possessed an almost crystalline sheen. The center of it's body though was a blood-red color and more flesh-like. It's short "beaked" head was topped by a tall three-pointed crest. Much like normal Dimenions, it had no eyes or any other facial feature. Instead of the scythe-like arms of it's smaller counterparts, it's arms where very long single-edged blades made of green photons. Also unlike Dimenions, what could've been described as two horizontal ribbon-like wings protruded room it's back. The edges of the wings were lines with it's bluish skin but the rest of the them were of multi-colored photons.

While frightening, the being possessed its own sort of beauty. The very aura it gave off confused Lloyd and no doubt everyone else. That same fear and dread was there, but it was mixed with something else. A benign feeling, a…he couldn't really put his finger on it but if he had to find a word for it…holy feeling.

"That thing is still…Dark Falz, right?" Lloyd asked with much uncertainty on his voice.

"What else could it be?" Sheena replied, "But…it doesn't just look different…"

"…It feels different," Colette said, "And why is it just floating there?"

"It changed it's form rather suddenly. It may not be used to it's new shape," Raine offered.

With the team gathered, the FOmarl used the opportunity to cast a Resta, preparing them for would happen next. Just before the Technique ended, the "holy" demon took notice of it, lunging forward. With renewed strength the hunters avoided it's huge right arm-blade. Rather than pulling back, the blue-skinned monster swung it's blade in a clockwise arc, hitting Lloyd, Regal, and Presea with its flat portion. A mixture of gasps and cries sounded from the others as the three were sent flying towards the edge of the ring…hitting an unseen wall and falling back down on the ring's surface

As the three of them stood back up, they looked around in puzzlement. Reaching for what should've been empty space, they instead felt a wall.

"It would appear that an unknown force is preventing us from being sent over the edge," Presea stated.

"Hmm, perhaps falling off would be too simple a death in Dark Falz's eyes," Regal said coolly.

The monster in question "stared" at the three it hit while the other gaped on in disbelief and relief that they had survived. Lloyd for a moment caught the looks on their faces when he and the other two were sent flying. Colette's was one that was especially burnt into his mind. It was a horrified expression of seeing them sent almost over the edge, falling to their certain death. He remembered stories of how Dark Falz--or Dark Falzes as the case may be--enjoyed the pain and suffering of living creatures. There was no doubt in his mind that it was responsible for the disappearance of _Pioneer 1_'s people…that it killed them.

The red-armored HUmar again charged at the floating behemoth which was close enough to reach from the inside edge of the ring. He slashed his right Musashi across the monster's protruded "beak." It's skin wasn't as strong as its previous form as this single slash caused noticeable damage. Dark Falz floated away from the twin swordsman, though not in time for Regal's Flowen's sword as he leaped to catch it before it backed away far enough. The melee fighters kept close to the creature, save for Sheena who joined the Forces and Colette in attacking from a distance. Her daggers had far too short a range to be used safely and besides, her Technical prowess was the best out of the non-Forces in the party. Genis and Raine first tried Grants, but the creature didn't do much as flinch. Their Rafoies proved much more effective.

As the creature floated back, forth and cross the center of the ring, it occasionally turned to a shining silver color, rendering it completely invulnerable to physical attacks. Though Techniques were still able to affect it, it further frustrated the Hunters who were having a hard enough time striking it when it was within range.

Taking advantage of an up-close un-silvered moment, Presea brought down her Victor Axe upon the monster's side. Before the weapon could connect, the demon faced her. A shimmering white light suddenly appeared above it's head. In the meantime, an ethereal image of Presea "projected" off the young Newman, as big as she was at first but steadily growing larger. Once it touched Dark Falz, the image vanished. The girl could only stare dumbfounded.

"Presea!" Genis called out. Having seen what Dark Falz did to her, the FOnewm rushed over to her. His sister was not far behind him.

"Are you all right? What did that thing do to you?" the boy exclaimed.

The pink-haired Newman shook her head, "I cannot say. I don't feel any differently."

"Are you certain? Whatever it did seemed too elaborate to do nothing," Raine said, having caught up to the two.

"I--AAAHH!" she suddenly yelled, flinching as if she were struck by some unseen force.

"Presea! What just happened to you?" Genis exclaimed frantically.

"I don't know. I felt a sudden great pain and--WAAAHH!" She cried out again, this time a feeling a searing heat. She felt another surge of pain and a sudden loss of stamina, causing her to fall to her knees.

"Stop it! Everyone, stop attacking Dark Falz!" Raine shouted.

Though spread out, the others heard the FOmarl's cry. Closest to her Zelos asked, "What's going on? What are we stopping for?"

"It's Presea! I don't understand how, but each time we attack it, Presea ends up being hurt instead," We will have to avoid hurting it for the time being."

"Avoid hurting it" was more like "avoid getting hit by it" as the demon attacked with it's huge arms more often. Though it could only attempt to strike one person at a time, they couldn't think of any way to stop it without hurting Presea.

After several minutes the white orb of light above Dark Falz's head vanished. The same ghostly image of Presea emerged from the demon, hovering back to the girl while decreasing in size. The image vanished upon touching the girl, her eyes widened at the sight.

Genis, who had stayed near the young Newman along with his sister said, "That was like what happened before, except in reverse. Do you think you won't get hurt anymore?"

Presea replied by running towards the inside of the ring. Dark Falz swung at the girl, missing her by a few hairs. The monster backed away quickly out of her axe range. The girl then launched a Foie, hitting the monster at the base of its crest. The creature flinched noticeably, but Presea didn't fell a thing.

"We can recommence the assault. I am no longer being harmed when it is harmed," Presea stated, her voice just loud enough for all the others to hear.

Rafoie explosions followed after the girl's declaration. Diska slashes hit the demon on several parts of it's body. Instead of getting close, Dark Falz kept away from the inner rim. For a while the melee fighter resorted to Techniques.

Without warning the demon flew upwards, climbing so high that it was out of reach of their Techniques. Though they didn't have the slightest notion as to what it was doing, none of them took their eyes off the demon.

Dark Falz swung down its right arm-blade, releasing a huge mass of blue orbs. The mass shot downward, separating into eight groups. As the orbs got closer to the ring, the hunters stopped watching and began running. Though the orbs seemed to target specific hunters, they couldn't hit them while they were running. Instead the blue lights "rolled" across the ring before disappearing altogether. More waves of orbs followed but out-running them proved easy enough. Soon after the last wave, eight larger purple-colored orbs targeted the eight of them. Raine warned them that they were Megid spheres, a Technique that has a chance of instantly killing most non-human creatures and rendering humans unconscious. Since the being using them clearly wasn't humans, they didn't take any chance in letting the orbs touch them.

The demon above them swung both its arm-blades but nothing came from it right away. After a few moments though, a single twinkling light appeared above the heads of each hunter. They've seen it enough times to know what they were: Grants Techniques.

"Don't was time running! Heal yourselves before they set off!" Raine shouted to those too far from her Resta range.

Fully restored or not, when the lights reached their midsections and flashed, the intense pain was enough to knock them all down.

Sheena picked herself up, panting. Casting a quick Resta, she looked around at everyone else. Lloyd, Colette, Presea and Genis were starting to stand back up, most likely having healed already. Raine was casting a Reverser on Regal, having been too far from the others to be healed by the pervious group Resta and probably unable to use his own in time. Zelos was in the opposite direction of the others and a few yards away from Sheena. Lying sprawled out on his hack, the red-haired HUmar didn't move.

"Zelos? Zelos wake up!" she called to him, having knelt next to him. Though Grants causes no outside harm to its target, any number of internal organs could've been seriously damaged. With the Forces too distant, Sheen hurriedly searched through her medicine bag. Pineapple Gels, Lemon Gels, Antidotes, Antiparalysises, Panacea Bottles…there was one!

The Hunewearl took out a small bottle filled with a clear liquid. Though officially named "Moon Atomizers", most everyone calls them "Life Bottles".

Quickly Sheena opened the bottle, turning it upside down. When the contents touched the air, it instantly vaporized, surrounding the male Hunter. Once the mist dissipated, the HUmar began to stir.

"Err…Sheena?" Zelos said groggily, looking up at the dark-haired Newman.

"Oh thank the Great Light," Sheena said, letting out a sigh of relief.

'That Grants hurts like Hell. I can't believe I let it nearly kill me like that," Zelos continued. He then winked, "Of course I should've known you wouldn't let that happen to me, Hunny."

Sheena made a slight scowl but the redness on her cheeks was clearly from embarrassment.

"Don't say it like that, idiot! I'm not about to let you die."

"Seeing as we're still fighting that Dark Falz, I'll leave it at that," he said, getting back up, "You know what they say though: 'actions speak louder than words'." The redhead smirked. The HUnewearl's face turned a deeper shade of red.

At that point, the demon hovering high above the battlefield came back down, as if it had waited for all of them to recover from the last attack. It lunged with it's huge right arm-blade but not before everyone avoided the strike. The melee fighters managed to hack into the monster before it turned silver and rendering their weapons useless. All the while Rafoie after Rafoie exploded on and around it.

How long the hunters and the incarnation of a dead god fought none could say. Minutes, hours, days…it made little difference. Keeping a sense of time was difficult in such a strange place. Either way, the relentless fighting took a toll on all of them. While in the center of the ring Dark Falz did little else than try and cut someone in two or make itself invulnerable to physical weapons. Its unusual transfer-of-pain-temporarily-to-someone-else ability was used a few times more on Sheena, then Genis, Lloyd and Zelos, dragging the battle on even further. More often than not, Dark Falz flew up high, firing its blue orbs, Megid and Grants Techniques. Though better prepared for these assaults, the amount of healing needed took a toll on their supplies and stamina. Even with the constant use of Resta and Gels, each one of them was gravely injured enough at one point to need a Reverser or Life Bottle.

The demon though was barely slowing down. Its arms and beak-like appendage were covered in the distinctive burned slashes of twin swords, broadswords, sabers, axes and slicers as well as scorch marks left by repeated Rafoie explosions. However the monster continued to fight fiercely. In the meantime the hunters had to fight back physical and mental fatigue through the constant use of restorative Gels and Resta Techniques. The way the battle was going it was only a matter of time before they completely ran out of supplies and left at the mercy of Dark Falz.

The monster had completed a round of Grants, choosing to stay high up as the hunters on the ring kept a watch on it, panting. Healing in any way was becoming less effective as they battled, leaving them tired even after healing wounds.

The hovering demon descended once again, faster than it had before. With Lloyd the closest to the inner edge of the ring, Dark Falz turned to face the young HUmar. He tensed up, preparing to avoid its arm-blade. The creature lifted its right blade up, lunging forward…

…And stopping just before it came halfway between its height and Lloyd's.

"What in the…?" was all the red-armored HUmar could say.

Dark Falz slowly brought its raised arm back down, strangely quaking as it did. It then lowered it's head, resting it right at the edge of the ring.

"What is it doing?" Genis wondered aloud.

"Maybe it's starting to get tired, too?" Colette offered.

"Or it might be trying to lure us into a false sense of security," Regal remarked.

"_PLEASE, HURRY_!"

A collective gasped escaped from the mouths of the hunter party. They all distinctly heard a voice, one that boomed loudly. Yet they didn't actually hear anything--the words literally popped into their heads. It was unlike anything they "heard" before; a loud growling tone mixed with a softer, somehow familiar voice.

"Who said that?" Lloyd shouted.

"_I CAN'T HOLD IT FOR MUCH LONGER. HURRY, KILL IT…KILL ME_!

Everyone's eyes immediately fell on the immobile but shaking demon. What else could the voice have been? Why was it asking them to kill it, though? Perhaps it was an elaborate trick to finish them off. That didn't explain why it looked like it was having trouble controlling itself.

Lloyd shrugged off the thoughts, deciding to listen to the strange voice. With a roar, the twin swordsman ran forward. Seeing this, Zelos, Presea and Regal followed suit, weapons at the ready. Lloyd leaped onto the monster's head, drawing both Musashi back. Using the extra power through the weapons' Berserk ability, he plunged both of them into the base of its three-pronged crest. Zelos reached the creature's head next, stabbing his DB's Saber deeply into its body through a similar ability to Berserk, Spirit, which drained mental rather than physical energy. Presea buried her Victor Axe into the monster's skull. Regal plunged his huge Flowen's Sword into its head. Instead of using her Diska, Colette joined Raine, Genis and Sheena in one massive Rafoie.

Once the fire ball subsided, the demon threw off the four Hunters on its head, sending them sliding across the floor of the ring or hitting the invisible wall on the outer edge. It raised both arm-blades up in a gesture that would've been followed by a loud scream or bellow. Instead there was only the same silence. Dark Falz's body glowed in a bright light before it shattered into countless tiny pieces.

Most of the light shards faded away, leaving behind an ethereal human-sized form. The glowing form slowly took the shape and appearance of a young woman. Dressed in mostly red and white with some blue outfit, her short hair was of a bright red color with a streak of light blue in the middle of her bangs. Her eyes were a similar shade of red, her red framed glasses not at all obscuring them. A very distinct red bracelet wrapped around right wrist. The transparent woman hovered slowly toward the hunter group.

"Rico Dorr…Red Ring Rico…" Sheena said in a low but audible voice.

The ghostly woman nodded, "_Thank you, all of you, for saving me_…_and for stopping Dark Falz._"

While her lips moved, they couldn't physically hear her voice. Much like the booming voice from before, they heard it in their minds, much like remembering someone's voice.

"Dark Falz had possessed you all this time… We should have realized that," Colette said, her head lowered.

Rico shook her head, "_There was no way you could have defeated that demon without killing me. I accepted that fate the moment it caught in its trap and took over my body._"

"Everyone from _Pioneer 1_…they're all dead, right?" Lloyd asked her.

The woman nodded sadly, "_That explosion you all saw, that was Dark Falz being released from its seal, probably by the military team that was sent to investigate the ship. It may not have had a body, but it still had enough power to engulf everyone in the underground and in and around Central Dome—everyone from _Pioneer 1 _I'm not certain, but I think it was either searching for a potential host or merely absorbing them to maintain its spiritual form._"

Lloyd nodded understandingly. He knew; he just wanted to be certain. Genis, Raine and Presea lowered their heads sadly.

"What will…happen to you now, Ms. Dorr?" Raine asked her.

The ghost only smiled.

"_Farewell, all of you. I thank you again for saving me…and the future of our people."_

With that, the renowned Hunter flew up, vanishing when she reached a certain height. As soon as she was gone, the ring-shaped structure of light and barren, rocky ground vanished as well, leaving behind an ordinary, though large, room within the ancient ship. A large red bracelet fell from where Rico disappeared, falling to the ground and spinning before it landed with a clattering sound.

* * *

Woah! I should've known considering how major this chapter was, but I never imagined it'd be a little over 20 pages typed! O.O I really let it all out here, heh. 

In any case, major apologizes for the lateness. Aside from the fact that this chapter took a long time to type up, I'm still busy with school work, my job etc. etc. At least I finally got the chapter I wanted to write for a long time done:D I hope that those of you reading this enjoyed it as much as I did writing it. I have to admit the bit of Deus Ex Machina towards the end was sudden, but I thought it'd be dramatic. I'm also aware that you never meet Rico's ghost in PSO without going through an elaborate ordeal involving Red Weapons, the last boss in Episode II and whatnot. Also, I know those spinning blade things before fighting Dark Falz are called Darvants, but with the radar not working and such, I thought it'd make more sense if they weren't named for this story. Again, I thought it'd suite the story for the characters to meet the woman they've been following, at least for a little while.

Well now that this is done, there will be one final wrap-up chapter and then on to Episode II! Well, I'll probably put out two or three one-shots between the end of Episode I and the start of Episode II, but that's a different story. Until then, thank you so much for reading and being patient with how long this took (at least I hope you were patient ).


	15. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

_Can Still See the Light_

"I ask that you keep the truth about Dark Falz a secret for the time being. The World Ship underground will continue to be referred to as 'ruins' for now. We will announce the deaths of everyone on _Pioneer 1_ to the public in a week's time," the aging leader of _Pioneer 2_ said to the eight hunters gathered before him.

"Though we may call upon your services at a later point, your investigation is officially over," he continued. lowering his head respectively, he added, "On behalf of the Council , I thank you all."

"Principal Dorr?"

The man looked up, turning towards the one who spoke; Lloyd. Looking a little downcast, the boy continued, "We're sorry that we couldn't save your daughter. I'm sure though that she would have wanted you to have this."

Lifting his right arm, the HUmar placed a familiar ring-shaped item on the principal's desk. A red bracelet; the object that gave Rico her "Red Ring" nickname. Principal Dorr took the bracelet into his hand turning it over and smiling sadly.

"There is nothing to be sorry about," He said, still looking at the piece of jewelry, "You did save her; you freed her. She told my so herself."

"…Huh?" was all he could say. The others had similar puzzled looks.

"Thank you for giving this to me, nevertheless."

* * *

" 'We will announce the deaths of everyone from _Pioneer 1 _in a week', huh? Minus any mention of Dark Falz, a ship built by our ancestors, and certainly not that _Pioneer 1'_s government was looking for both of them, nuh-uh!" 

After many hours of giving reports and submitting the data they collected on the buried spaceship, the eight had ended their meeting with Principal Dorr, finally being allowed to go to their homes. They were just outside his office, in the lobby near the Hunter's Guild and transporter when Zelos decided to voice his opinion on the matter.

"You know we can't just tell everyone what _really _happened!" Sheena stated harshly.

"Yeah, I know. If the general public found out that everyone from _Pioneer 1_ was killed by a sealed demon, they might panic, even though we killed it," Zelos said as if rehearsed, "Light forbid we say that _Pioneer 1's _government was the one who was snooping around down there looking for said demon!"

"As hunters, we have to follow the orders of our employers, especially the government," Regal stated, "Even if that weren't the case, the people of _Pioneer 2_ have gone through enough already. It would hinder more than help the situation to tell them the truth now."

"I know, I know. I wasn't about to go and announce to the ship what we found. I'm just saying that it's unfair."

"Yeah…We can't even tell anyone else who lost someone from _Pioneer 1 _what really happened to them. They might never know the truth," Lloyd said forlornly.

"Only we know…" Genis added in a similar tone.

"Hey, hey, it's not all bad!" Zelos said suddenly, "We still saved everyone on _Pioneer 2_. Hell, we saved the entire universe! We're heroes! Wait…" With a look of mock anger on his face, he continued all the while doing elaborate gestures, "Ah man! That just makes it worse! We should be getting parades and statues built in our honor! Even my Hunnies can't know that I helped to stop the biggest threat the universe has ever known!"

A few of the others smiled at his attempt to lighten the mood, or at least had the vestige of one. A few of them also rolled their eyes up. Sheena did both, though she tried to hide the smile.

"It's hard to believe it's all over, isn't it?" Colette said, changing the subject.

"It is. Four months have passed since the four of us began investigating in the forest," Raine agreed, "It's almost surreal how fast all those investigations feel right now."

"And now, we'll finally be able to settle on Ragol without fear," Sheena began to say, "Zelos is right for once, we are heroes."

"Exactly…hey…"

The lights that simulated a sun began to dim in the city as street lights turned on and the hologram meant to emulate a blue sky faded, beginning to reveal the blackness of space.

"Well, it's getting late. Time for this hero to call it a day," Zelos said, stretching out his arms.

"Same here," Sheena said, looking out at the city from the lobby windows. Turning back toward the others, she continued, "Well, we've been through a lot, but I'm glad we did."

The others agreed, thanking the powers that be that brought them together. After a round of farewells, and promises to keep in touch, the unusually large hunter team went their separate ways, Raine, Genis and Presea heading in one, Regal in another, Sheena in yet another attempting to shake Zelos off and Lloyd walking Colette home as their apartment buildings were not far from each other.

* * *

_So you did get to say good-bye to your father, huh Rico?_

"Lloyd?"

The boy in question turned his attention toward Colette. They were about half-way to Colette's apartment building and the street lights had already fully turned on. Looking concerned, she asked, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," he replied, looking a little puzzled.

"You seemed lost in thought. Were you thinking…about your father?"

"…About my dad?" The HUmar blinked after a momentary pause.

Colette lowered her head, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought it up."

"No, no, it's okay, Colette. To tell you the truth, I was thinking about what the principal said. He sounded like Rico went to see him before she really left."

The blonde nodded. There was a moment of silence before she spoke,

"Do you wish you could have seen your father one last time, too?"

"Well…I would have liked it if I did get to see him one last time. To tell you the truth though, I'm more relived than sad. At least I know what happened to him and to everyone else from _Pioneer 1_. By killing Dark Falz we made sure that no one else will fall victim to it again."

"But you still miss him, right?"

He nodded, lowering his head a bit, "For seven years, I haven't seen him. For two-and-a-half I was anxious to see him again. And now…" He lifted his head back up, "But, I'm not the only one. The Professor, Genis, Presea…hundreds, maybe thousands more won't ever see someone they lost. Only the council and us knows what really happened to them. It's a shame that we can't even tell anyone else…" Lloyd trailed off, shaking his head, "No. I don't care what the principal said. I have to at last tell my mom. She deserves to know as much as I do."

Colette nodded in understanding but she still had an uncertain look on her face. Noticing this, Lloyd said,

"You don't have to worry about me. Just talking to you about it is enough."

The girl finally allowed a small smile, "I'm glad I could help you in some way."

Smiling, the HUmar looked up at the ceiling, the glass dome showing Ragol along with the blackness of space.

"It shouldn't be long now before we're finally able to live on Ragol," Lloyd thought aloud.

Looking up at the beautiful planet that they had spent months exploring, Colette couldn't help but agree, "Not long at all, I'm sure of it.

* * *

Oh for the love of…! I still can't believe I took so long writing this! Well, it didn't help that due to circumstances beyond my control, I was computer-less almost all summer, but I really could've gotten this chapter done earlier…I suppose it was also a mixture of writer's block and sheer laziness. 

I'm sorry if this epilogue seems a bit choppy. I figured I should leave any major conclusions and every-character's thoughts and reflections for Episode II. I felt though that it was necessary to focus on Lloyd's feelings about Kratos since I hadn't touched upon it much recently. This isn't really an end so much as it is a temporary pause. Or if you'd like, you can chalk it up to me just trying to finish this once and for all. XD

Ah yes, I suppose this was never openly stated, but it's true. Kratos is dead…for the moment. Will he somehow show up alive and well in Episode II? Will he somehow be involved in a bigger conspiracy? Will he just never be mentioned again because he's one of the character's I least understand in ToS? Read and find out! XD

Oh right, it should help if I reveal Episode II's real title! Officially it will be called "Tales of Phantasy: Gal Da Val Saga"…Yeah, I've never been one for originality with titles… I'll still be calling it "Episode II" for short. Well anyway, it takes place two months after the end of Episode I. The team is called upon to participate in a hunter exam by a lab. If they pass, they will send them to the Island of Gal Da Val, where a message was recieved from someone from Pioneer 1...long after he/she has allegedly died. For anyone who has already played PSO Episode II, I will not go into detail on the VR areas. Instead I will focus more on the characters and their thoughts and interactions for the first few chapters. The VR areas are just Episode I condensed anyway...

As I said in the last chapter, I will not be working on Episode II right away. The muses have been bugging me to write other stories. If anyone reading this likes Baten Kaitos or Sword of Mana, you may want to check them out (see my profile for more details). I'll probably start on Episode II sometime in November, or if I'm lucky, late October. We'll just see how things go.

Speaking of Baten Kaitos, why did I feel inclined to listen to it and Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicle's soundtrack in additions to three versions of "Can Still See the Light" while typing this… Xo

Er, anyway, this is where I say good-bye, dear readers. I hope you enjoyed reading this slightly unusual story of mine and look forward to Episode II. This being the last chapter of Episode I, I hope it will spur a few more of you to review…


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